The Science of Imaginary Solutions
Etage Projects, Cph
Exhibition
2019
Exhibition photos David Stjernholm Work photos Rosalina Kruse Serup
The Spine
Kviberg, Gothenburg
Public Commission
2019
4 meter tall public comission for the city of Gothenburg. To be installed outside Kviberg School in September 2019. Called The Spine, it is based on the idea that the school is the spine of society. The shape is constructed with building-blocks, underpinning how knowledge builds on top of each other.
Fossils & Tools
Hallands Museum of Art
Public Commission
2019
A site specific commission for the new extended building of Hallands Museum of Art, Sweden. Previously being a County Museum, it holds a large collection of cultural historical objects, such as old craft tools and excavated objects from the stone- and iron age. The commission - a flooring for the museum café and auditorium - is based on the museum collection. The flooring in the old building is made of limestone, rich on fossils. Historically, pedagogical tours showing the fossils, was an integrated part of the museum’s daily operation. With a flooring as the ‘canvas’ six large ‘excavations’ is created, containing pewter casts of original objects from the collection. The excavations are filled up with coal powder and transparent resin.
Counter and plinths
Boys Don’t Cry, Paris
Private Commission
2019
The Blob
ArkDes/Swedish Institute Paris
Public Commission
2018
Apparent appearance of life
Söndersjukhuset hospital, Stockholm
Public Commission
2017
I do spend time in nature
Berg Gallery, Stockholm
Exhibtion
2017
Big Bang and other explanations
Etage Projects, CPH
Studio Work
2016
Asynja
Residence In Nature, Lessebo Creek
Projects
2016
Two river sculptures produced during ‘Residency In Nature’ in Småland Sweden. The sculptures are made from blue-clay dug up in the area and the pieces are based on a 700 year old local myth about female fertility rituals, taking place in the rivers around the area.
Erosional Remnant
Ace Hotel
Private Commission
2015
Cubes
Stockholm/Copenhagen
Studio work
2015
Stena Stiftelsen Award
Gothenburg Museum of Art
Exhibition
2014
Malleability
Tramway Glasgow
Exhibition
2013
The Monument
Innsbruck
Exhibition
2013
The sculpture, depicting the topography of the Tyrollean mountains, was conceived through transferring files from Google Earth into a 3D program. The topography was later cut out in a cnc-router in glass and the composite material Jesmonite. The sculpture was accompanied by a 4 minute video. Filmed in a quarry, it fictitiously narrates the origin of the sculpture. Created in collaboration with Swarovski.
The Materiality of a Natural Disaster
Royal College of Art, London
Graduation Project
2012
The Materiality of a Natural Disaster. The 12 minute documentary takes place in Fukushima, Japan, a year after the Tohoku Daiichi Powerplant disaster. In the wake of the accident, the government evacuated a 30 km area and put up an exclusion zone around the powerplant. I visited the rice farmer Naoto Matsumura, who had refused to move from his home and was now the only man still living within the exclusion zone. Fukushima had mainly been an agricultural area but when the soil became contaminated by radiation, the agriculture was wiped out. I made a documentary about Matsumuras life and together we dug up soil from his old rice fields. From the soil I created 5 sculptures with the typology of food ves- sels. The shapes of the vessels were hinting to the specific produce from the area. The idea was for them to work as symbols, loaded with the narrative of the area, as an allegory to the devastating event.
Sedimentation Urns
Royal College of Art, London
Studio work
2011
Hilda Hellström has developed her practice using intricate casting techniques that explore the inherent qualities of transformative materials. With an empirical and experimental approach, her interest lies in how cultural or emotional associations of material affect our perception of the world around us.
In the process she incorporates the will of the material, leaving large parts of the process to the haphazardness of gravity. To show the material qualities and the process of production - what she calls the material narrative - is significant to the practice. She sees this interest as a critique to the anthropocentric worldview that leaves man at the center of all relations. The juxtaposition between control and chance is at the core of her work, where control represents human action and the chance represents non-human influences.
Through film and sculpture, Hellström has explored the themes of geology and natural forces throughout her practice. The ground we stand on, that we know in its uttermost solidity, erupts and transforms, which might leave us feeling humble or lacking control. These transformative aspects of the world and the malleability of reality are in different ways translated into the work.
Her work has been exhibited at Gothenburg Museum of Art, The British Craft Council, MAK (Museum für Angewandte Kunst) Vienna, Victoria & Albert Museum London, Tramway Glasgow, London Design Museum, Eskilstuna Konstmuseum, Gustavsbergs Konsthall, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Röhsska Museet, Art Basel Miami, Shanghai Power Station Art Museum, Daelim Museum South Korea, Design Museo Helsinki and MUDAC Lausanne, amongst other institutions. Hellström currently lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Education
◦ Master of Arts, Royal College of Art, London 2012
Exhibitions
Solo & Two-persons exhibitions
◦ “When I was ten, a fish shoal nibbled my skin (this will take a lifetime)” Niclas Berg Gallery SE Stockholm 2020
◦ “The Science of Imaginary Solutions” Etage Projects DK Copenhagen 2019
◦ “I do spend time in nature” Niclas Berg Gallery SE Stockholm 2017
◦ “Stenastiftelsens Art Award” Göteborgs Konstmuseum SE Gothenburg 2014/15
◦ “Still it moves” Gallery Bensimon FR Paris 2014
◦ “Hilda Hellström x Bec Brittain” Matter US New York 2014
◦ “The Monument” Swarovski Wonder Chamber, AU Innsbruck 2013- 2014
Selected Group Exhibitions
2019
◦ “Public Luxury” Swedish Institute FR Paris
2018
◦ “Public Luxury” Arkdes Architecture Museum, SE Stockholm
2017
◦ “5KV” Kvalitar Gallery, CZ Prague
◦ “Twelve Tall Tales” (The British Crafts Council) Oriel Davies Gallery IR Wales
◦ “Gustavsbergs Konsthall Revisited” Gustavsbergs Konsthall SE Gustavsberg
◦ “Room With its own Rules” Chamber NYC US New York
◦ “This is Today” Chamber NYC, US New York
2016
◦ “The Plinth Project” Etage Projects DK Copenhagen
◦ “Chamber NYC booth” Art Basel Miami US Miami Beach
◦ “Keep In Touch” Skånes Konstförening SE Malmö
◦ “Konsthantverk i Sverige” Eskilstuna Konstmuseum SE Eskilstuna
◦ “Residence-In-Nature” Växjö Konsthall SE Växjö
◦ “Objects Of Desire” Design Museo Helsinki FI Helsinki
◦ “Twelve Tall Tales” The British Craft Council UK London UK
◦ “Colour Your Life” Daelim Museum KR Seoul
◦ “Sur” Apalazzo Gallery IT Brescia
2015
◦ “Eva Bonnier for public Art” Konstakademiet SE Stockholm
◦ “Den Nya Kvinnogruppen” Eskilstuna Konstmuseum SE Eskilstuna
◦ “Pilsen 2015 – European City of Culture” CZ Pilsen
◦ “Radikal Vänskap” Gustavsbergs Konsthall SE Gustavsberg
◦ “Samtidsarkeologi” Galleri Format NO Oslo
2014
◦ “DNK: Så Därför Kom Vi Hit” Verkstad; Rum för Konst SE Norrköping
◦ “Atemporaneo” Apalazzo Gallery IT Brescia
◦ “Crafting Narratives“ The British Craft Council UK London
◦ “Rum 319” Crystal Gallery SE Stockholm Art Week
◦ “Den Nya Kvinnogruppen” Fullersta Gård SE Stockholm
◦ “The Future Is Handmade” Kalmar Konstmuseum SE Kalmar
◦ “NightTime DreamReal” Power Station Art Museum CN Shanghai
◦ “House Style” Tramway UK Glasgow
◦ “Mastering Design” Mudac CH Lausanne
◦ “Swarovski Digital Crystal” Beijing Design Week CN Beijing
2012
◦ “Digital Crystal” Design Museum UK London
◦ “Royal College of Art Graduation Show” Royal College of Art Battersea UK London
Collections & Public Commissions
Collections
◦ Public Art Agency, Sweden 2019
◦ City of Örebro SE Sweden 2018
◦ Stockholm County Council (SLL) several purchases 2017
◦ Handelsbankens Konstförening SE Stockholm 2017
◦ Eskilstuna Museum of Art SE Eskilstuna 2015
◦ SAK, Sveriges Allmänna Konstförening 2015
◦ Stenastiftelsens samling SE Gothenburg 2014
◦ MAK (Museum für Angewandte Kunst) AU Vienna 2013
Public comissions
◦ Municipality of Gothenburg SE 2019
◦ Hallands Museum of Art SE 2019
◦ Danderyd hospital SE Stockholm 2017
◦ Södersjukhuset Maternity hospital SE Stockholm, 2017
Awards & Grants
◦ Working grant, Statens Kunstfond DK 2019
◦ Two-year working grant, Konstnärsnämnden SE 2018
◦ Working grant, Statens Kunstfond DK 2018
◦ Travel grant, Konstnärsnämnden/Iaspis SE 2017
◦ Travel grant, Konstnärsnämnden/Iaspis SE 2016
◦ One year working grant, Konstnärsnämnden/Iaspis SE 2015
◦ The craftsman of the year, Residence Magazine SE 2015
◦ Stenastiftelsens kulturstipendiat, Gothenburg, SE 2014
◦ Helge Ax:son Johnsons stipendium SE 2014
◦ Represented in Iaspis artist archive SE since 2013
Residencies
◦ 2 month Artist Residency, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, US 2016
◦ Residence-In-Nature in collaboration with Växjö Konsthall 2015-2016
◦ 2 month Artist Residency, Cove Park, Scotland 2013
Publications
◦ What’s Next; Ecomaterialism & Contemporary Art. Intellectual Books, Linda Weintraub, 2018
◦ SubStance: A Review of Theory and Literary Criticism, Lithic Mythology: Design and the Future of the Lithosphere, Adam Nocek (US) 2017
◦ The Nuclear Culture Source Book, professor Ele Carpenter (UK) 2016
◦ Apollo - The International Art Magazine, Atomic matter, James Purdon (UK) 2017
◦ Crafting Narratives, The British Craft Council, catalog, Onkar Kular (UK) 2014
◦ Sten A Olssons Kulturstipendiater, catalog, Sara Michaëlsson och Magnus Haglund (SVE) 2014
◦ In Residence; Identity Detectors, Barbara Brondi och Marco Rainò (IT) 2014
◦ Girls, Pig Quarterly, Rujana Rebernjak (IT) 2013
Download CV
Interview with theguardian
Exhibition text - The Science of Imaginary Solutions
A Trailer - An Island
Design and Technical realization: Kiosk Studio
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