A three-dimensional drawing in and with already bent metal makes a clustered stab at the apparently temporary. A sculptural piece which looks as if it might return to being a den for a child, or an invisible friend, is combined with skin and volumetric gourds with no fixed address or role. The play at sticks and pricks, bulbs and empty vessels reveals here a plausible temporary space and context to be inhabited, each time, by itself. It seems as if it could all move along somehow. Instead of a virtuoso mind over matter, of turning raw material into a gravity-defying moment, the work by Evelina Hägglund and Rosalie Wammes poses more a sense of possibility than fact.
So, here, drawn images appear more effective than the physical arrangements and any subsequent verbal rationale. The drawing catches, each time, any possible nuance about space and consciousness, while clusters and moments of actual material, however, appear happy to remain in unresolved limbo with each other and themselves. With stretched skin, sometimes atop a tripod of legs, the material is not totally raw. By mutual consent, both artists seem keen to claim and inhabit a role in the lead-up to and aftermath of the exhibition itself. Rather than seeking any understood result, the sculptural pieces are on their way through in terms of questioning what they might do for each other.
Copyright Sacha Craddock. October 2022.
Evelina Hägglund (b. 1992) is a Swedish artist based between London and Stockholm. Her practice investigates and expands on how she materially responds to language (and consequently culture) and aims at bringing forth a way of knowing that isn’t possible to socialize but that can be physically experienced. Through drawing, painting and sculpture in metal, graphite and concrete, Hägglund’s focus is on giving space to the very excess of language. After completing her bachelor's degree at AVA - Academy of Visual Arts in Ljubljana in 2018, she entered the Master of Fine Art program at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she graduated in 2021. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions internationally, including at The Green Family Foundation (2022), Nicoletti Contemporary (2022), Union Pacific, (2021), Saatchi Gallery, UK (2021); Inter Pblc, Copenhagen, DK (2021), Jakobsbergs Konsthall, Stockholm, SWE (2020) and Kiribati National Museum, Tarawa, KI (2019). In 2021, Hägglund received a public commission from Plaza Protocol, curated by Tjaša Pogačar, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Rosalie Wammes is a Dutch artist based in Rotterdam. Her practice utilizes materials like clay and metal, wax and sound in order to encapsulate a sense of nostalgia and collective care. Her sculptures become channels for her memories, hopes and fears, which she generously bestows on the audience. Wammes is a recent recipient of the Gilbert Bayes Award (2022), selected for New Contemporaries (2022) and has shown her works in a.o. Saatchi Gallery (2022), Showroom MAMA (2021) and Het HEM (2020). She obtained her Master in Fine Arts at Chelsea College of Arts (UAL) in London (2021) and holds a BA in performance (Toneelacademie Maastricht)(2012).
