In Maya Strandberg's workshop, unique sculptures slowly emerge. From a heavy, stable base, they strive upwards, and during the concentrated work with the clay, a hint of a will of its own is awakened in the objects. As if they themselves sought their final form, but in their inadequacy failed to reach the ideal image.
In a mutual influence between form and surface, patterns and structures are gradually integrated into the form. For the viewer, the sculptures can be associated with excavated artefacts, but also petrified, and at the same time animated, natural formations. The result is work that is in the borderland between the abstract and the figurative.
The exhibition's title is originally the name of an installation that Maya's mother worked on some time before she passed away, and which Maya now borrows from her. I am sitting here. Are you sitting here too? is also a continuation of Maya's project Tell me where you are, which was shown at Gustavsbergs Art Gallery, among other places. The titles, set in chronological order, form a dialogue with each other that suggests a presence, a call, a missing.
Both projects touch on grief, and examine our bodily and spiritual anchoring in the world. Working with clay, Maya is rooted in the knowledge that it is formed from weathered rocks, that it is part of the soil. During the course of the work, the sculptures slowly take on the role of both man and nature.
Maya's practice and the sculptures shown in the exhibition consist of two parts in terms of form. Partly the organic sculptures, partly the abstract architectural objects. The latter are often larger and simpler in shape. The line is important, it should be fumbled but distinct, like the pencil line in a quick sketch on paper. These may represent the world and the place that the organic figures inhabit.
Maya Strandberg
Maya Strandberg (b. 1981) grew up in Växjö and is educated at the University of Arts and Design, HDK, in Gothenburg. She completed her master's degree in 2009. Nowadays, Maya lives in Stockholm and has her business in the Ateljéföreningen G-studion in Gustavsberg.
7 x konsthantverk
7 x konsthantverk is a series of seven exhibitions that will take place during the period 2020 – 2024 through a collaboration between Arts and Crafts Center and Form/Design Center. The project shows, through changing materials and expressions in the exhibitions, the breadth of the craft and the expertise that the craftsman possesses. The purpose of the project is to draw attention to the arts and crafts as an artistic discipline of its own, spread knowledge about and strengthen the display opportunities for arts and crafts in Skåne.
