As You Are
Kungsmadskolan, Växjö 2015
Commissioned by Växjö Municipality.
As You Are is conceived as a meeting place — a space for development, for making learning visible, and for learning through experience. The work is fully integrated into the architecture, positioned between the school café and the library, occupying the spatial interval between these functions.
The artwork operates through space and light, influencing how one perceives movement and activity on the opposite side of the room. From a distance, the surfaces appear monochrome and calm; up close, the material reveals itself through cracking, flocking, and subtle shifts in texture. The work is legible both at a distance and in detail.
The project is based on a fragile painterly process that is made durable over time through lamination. The starting point is the given conditions of the site — the volume of the space, the natural and artificial light — as well as the people who will encounter the work daily: students and staff. The painting process is pushed to its technical limits, grounded in long experience of how pigments of varying consistency behave on glass surfaces. In some areas the paint fractures, in others it gathers and drifts, and elsewhere it rests as a thin, continuous layer from edge to edge. Through lamination, these otherwise temporary states are fixed and preserved.
The glass surfaces are painted using a combination of hydrophobic liquids, waxes, and pigment. Once the painterly processes have reached their critical point, the surfaces are laminated to lock the fragile material expressions into a permanent condition.
With an understanding of the site as a place of movement, pause, and encounter, the intention is to create a welcoming and reassuring environment. The work gives the space a distinct identity and a sense of recognition for both visitors and those who use it daily. It addresses both the passerby and those who remain, offering depth and continuous discovery — a work that is immediately perceptible and endlessly nuanced.
Color, surface, light, and the act of painting are fundamental to my artistic practice. These elements are never forced into alignment but brought together through sensitivity and attention. I search for moments where subtle encounters — a fine line, a minor shift — determine whether the work achieves the resonance I am seeking. The organic, partly unpredictable process becomes a source of calm and contemplation, contributing to a sense of harmony and quiet wonder within the space.