Helén Svensson Swedish, b. 1964
Through material simplicity, repetition, and mistakes, Svensson operates under self-imposed premises and rules where unpredictability and control interact.
Helén Svensson is a Swedish visual artist who lives and works in Stockholm. She holds an MFA from the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm.
Svensson primarily works with images, objects, and installations that relate to the simple, small movements, the seemingly meaningless, the everyday. Instead of focusing on subject matter and narrative, she bases her work on method, material, and logic. Through material simplicity, repetition, and mistakes, she operates under self-imposed premises and rules where unpredictability and control interact. It is a methodical questioning process that consists of a slow movement in a given direction. The repetitive act is the method, where the movement in the process is meant to be reflected in the form and ultimately an attempt to leave traces in the work's expression. With form and signs, she visualizes our fundamental need to control, organize, and manipulate our surroundings. The slow meticulous work process also becomes a time document. The result lies at the boundary between the concrete and the abstract.
