Elisabeth Tronhjem. Stones that breathe
Why make sculpture?
Elisabeth Tronhjem
These few words try to express what is important in terms of the basis and driving force behind my work:
My fascination for the splendid panorama of the bay, which embraces the
sea, the sky and the port of Palma, and which I have been able to
enjoy from the terrace of my house / studio, has imbued my inspiration
with greater strength, thus allowing me a better understanding of the
true essence of the soul of Palma de Mallorca, through the filter of
all my personal life experiences.
To be of this world. The feeling of the eternity
of nature and of living beings, whose existence alternates within
nature itself. I try to administer my strength, trying out thoughts
and experiences, that I have, in relation to nature and creatures,
externalising this through my work, thus getting closer to extracting a
humanly universal expression, in a direct, immediate and expressive
form.
They are experiences and feelings trapped in an instant and taken out
of life’s flow, in which all is in perpetual motion: all is temporary
and mutated; impossible to hold back.
My sculptures attempt to manifest the current, the pulse of an
eternally contingent life, full of difficulties and contrasts; the
complex range of knowledge, stimuli and events that leave their mark,
the dialogues, in other words, the paradox of life.
Recognising the reality of this eternal mutation
and the precariousness of existence means respecting all creatures,
understanding their uniqueness and unrepeatable nature, in a type of
“Carpe Diem”, that is almost mystical. The artistic search is difficult
because, in my case; form, in other words sculpture, must come from
within me; nothing happens in an anticipated way and “repetition” makes
no sense. There are times when there is little to give, but even these
times of apparent emptiness are fertile, because in emptiness one
discovers the importance of another human being; one experiences a
state of empathy and exchange, a deep enthusiasm for life and the
desire to live in gratitude for the fragile miracle of existing open to
the world.
From here springs energy, the inspiration from which the basis of my
work is extracted. It is fantastic when the sculpture begins to “open
up” in my hands - here lies my happiness, that which gives meaning,
strength and value to my life.
For me, work is a process of searching and clarification: sculpture is
born from the fury of the desire to find expression in answer to doubt,
and of the contrasts and paradoxes that life involves. Converting these
contradictions and the incompatibility of life, uniting them in my
sculptures, I make, as a human being, a step forward.
In my dialogue with the material I use (marble, plaster, wood, iron and
at the moment marès the most ductile type of sandstone and the stone of
Santanyí, which I am lucky to be able to sculpt, a familiarisation
process begins, a process of inner growth that is based on intuition,
elucidation, continuous progression and the adaptation of expressive
media to an inexplicable reality.
The driving force enabling advancement at work is born from the
contrast between the progressive impetus, on one hand, and anxiety and
doubt, as a brake, on the other.
The alphabet of life. Reality and theatre: The entity within which
circulates the projection of fantasy, the sublimation of the idea, the
substance of perception, the determination of the concept, the
idea-force of beauty, the categories and stimulants of thought. The
tension toward the absolute.
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