Åsa Herrgård
Installations
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Solcirkel
Every evening when the sun sets in the sea the sun and the Circle meet. Time stops. Every winter storm it waits for the sun.
Uddens sculpture park is located at an old quarry near the sea in Hunnebostrand. In 2018 I installed a Sun Circle with a diameter of 11 meters. I covered the circles flat iron with gold leaf and it was mounted against one of the vertical cliff sides facing the sea and the sunset.
Uddens Skulpturpark. www.uddenskulptur.se
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Nothing Dissolve(s)
Working with other people and in other artists’ disciplines in a common production has been since 1990 - and still is - an important part of Åsa Herrgård’s art.
For instance, in 2015 she was invited to participate with the musician Dan Fröberg and the dancer and choreographer, Carmen Olsson in GIBCA - the Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art. They transformed the large boiler room of the closed-down paper mill, Papyrus, in Forsåkra, Mölndal, into an exhibition hall. The special history of the place and the hidden narratives of the former mill town gave form and expression to the exhibition and performance. Their project was called Nothing dissolve(s) to. Åsa’s installation took the form of a 12 m² large circle that hovered five centimeters above the dirty, worn boiler room floor. The circle’s yellow colour gave the feeling that it hovered like a spherical memory from the time the mill was in operation. The circle is a silent sound wave. A suggestive and empathic art project.
GIBCA Extender 2015 Pappersbruket Papyrus pannrum i Forsåkra, Mölndal
http://liveaction.se/sv/la-11/artists/dan-froeberg-sweden.html
https://www.carmenolsson.com/
Offentlig Gestaltning
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Åsa Herrgård’s art has grown out of clay, through cakes of beeswax, wood, plaster, withes of sallow and bamboo to large works in iron and steel.
Her vision has been strengthened by her materials, volume, and placements. Between 1995 and 2017 she has set up 23 public, site-specific artworks. These include works in roundabouts, in schoolyards, land-art installations, structures of steel, and roof constructions visible over the whole district where they are situated. The artist participates in the entire process, from the first sketches to the welding and final mounting on site.
Text by Lena Holger from the catalogue Konst är energi 2018
Projekt
Scenografi
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Vertical lines of thread create space
Weaves thoughts together
Opens up memories
Threads long, short with different thicknesses, material, scent and memories.
Tones that fall vertically down. And looks in the spaces / landscape of the threads and forms a form a whole.
Fragments of threads that drip down and are woven and build a context
The lines are woven, linked together, and form patterns
The vertical lines of wires create space.
Carmen dances and choreographs, takes the room
Her presence and dance make the spaces in the air and the threads vibrate, the threads get tangled form knots and stories arise
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Dare we close our eyes?
Between layers of memory and scent, something is set in motion.
This performance emerged during an investigative collaboration between us (Åsa Herrgård and Carmen Olsson). We took as a common point of departure an abstract image of fragrance as memories stored within us. Our respective means of expression, dance and movement, sculpture and installation, and our personal fragrance memories were brought to life and took shape during an experimental work process.
Our common interest in nature and in the meeting between our own and Asian cultures colours the performance offering the viewer both a sense of the familiar and the foreign. Between layers of memories, something is set in motion.
https://soundcloud.com/harald-svensson
2018-2019 Sandvikens Konstcentrum, 3 våningen, Bohusläns Konsthall, Wanås Konst, Blå Stället, Kyotos Tunnelbana och Shoyeido-galleriet Kyoto, Japan
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Wanås and Kyoto Project
NATUSUKASHII
Scents of soil, blueberries, mosses, sponges and stones;
Sounds from wooden boats, whispering winds and salted water
The sculptures depict fragile dreams, scents and sounds from my childhood in Finland
Dare we close our eyes?
It takes you back to memories and leads through transparent layers into the unknown.
who is this sensitive and vulnerable human being when she closes her eyes?
Personal memories of fragrance connect inner and outer worlds and take shape in a performance of dance, scenography and music.
Wanås Konst and Shoyeido-gallery in Kyoto, Japan 2018-2019
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Headlands
The first time I was at the Artist's residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts was in 1992. I was there for 6 months, collaborating with several artists from both the AIR program and the AFFILIATE program.
In 2016, I was given the opportunity to return through the VG- region stipend, I was there during the election and I involved it in my work, it was difficult to defend oneself in a country where politics was boiling at the time. I worked by chance, who wins? I also worked with sound because the sound is so noticeable in Headland when the fog comes as it does for long periods the fog is heard. I worked with sounds and spaces and threads that connected the equipment that was in my studio. Rene Yung and I met for a start on a performance, we have collaborated on several occasions since 1992.
http://www.headlands.org/
Rene Yung http://chinese-whispers.org/
Utställningar
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Ena
The boundary between human and animal, in what ways are we similar?
Exhibition ENA which means alone in the local Bohuslän dialect, just as you feel when an accident happens. It happened to me when I killed a deer that ran across the road, the grief of killing an animal was the catalyst for the exhibition. An animal that has as much right as I do to stay here on earth. Memories of the forest, animals and human fragility, vulnerability and mystery
Sandvikens konsthall February-Mars 2018
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Doftminnen
Only the dark forest and the cold sea know my hidden memories from the scents of my childhood.
Closeness to nature is stored in my Finnish roots.
An art installation where the search through my own history and memories is the central focus.
KB ART House Simrishamn December 2019
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GIBCA Extended
Secret history
An installation of Åsa Herrgård
An installation, a story that has its roots from World War II. In 1999, I discovered a mysterious magazine with accompanying clichés in attic of a old house in Dalsland. The family lived in the house downstairs and the attic was rented out during World War II to soldiers guarding the Swedish border with Norway. What happened in the house between 1943 – 45? I have my roots in Ostrobothnia, Finland, and war memories are part of my family’s history. The history of the house and my own became a catalyst for the installation: Hidden history.
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Tyst och Stilla
During the pandemic I worked on a collection with the title "Tyst och stilla" (eng. "Quiet and still").
A diary, a conversation between myself and the outside world. Some pieces returned like a echo, creating new forms and thoughts. Going to my workshop and working with clay became my way to survive the emotions that came during March 2020 to March 2021.
