Ideas cannot be fossilized
2023 (ongoing)


The growing block universe, 2023
Relief in granite, after child drawing



Eternal doodles, 2023
Relief in granite, after child drawings

In the project Ideas cannot be fossilzed, I create sculptures in granite based on children's drawings. The project examines children's drawings as a means of communication and studies the child's first attempts at writing letters. This connects with the art historical idea that man began to write down her history when she began to write. I thus link the children's first attempt at written communication to the history of human art and through this project studiy the children's transition from their own prehistory into history.

In connection with the project, 24 workshops with preschool children will be held in September 2023. The material accumulated from the workshops is used as a basis for a stone sculpture that will be produced in spring 2024. The children also get to participate in the creation of a public work of art which they will then be able to visit and interract with after the end of the project. This project is partly inspired by the consciousness-raising pedagogy of the Brazilian educator Paolo Freire; he believes that by becoming aware of one's reality, one becomes a co-creator in ones culture and, in the long run, also a co-creator in ones history. 

The Identity associates
2022-2023 (ongoing)

In The identity associates, I collaborate with my own children to create a series of aquarelle paintings. The images are based on photographs taken by the kids with my cell phone and they are then invited to draw on the paintings with dry pastel crayons.

Blood matters
2022

Blood matters
Installation view from Tegnerforbundet, Oslo, 2022



Cute Agression, 2022
Aquarelle and pencil on paper, 157x125cm


Blood Study (2022) and Cute Agression (2022)
Installation view from Tegnerforbundet, Oslo, 2022.
All photos by Tegnerforbundet/ v. Øystein Thorvaldsen.


Grip, 2022
aquarelle on paper mounted in lightbox
50x70cm



Hold on, 2022
aquarelle on paper mounted in lightbox
50x70cm



The Horse, 2022
aquarelle on paper mounted in lightbox
50x70cm



Surveillance, 2022
aquarelle on paper mounted in lightbox
50x70cm
Blood Matters is a project that contains large-scale drawings, smaller aquarelle paintings mounted in lightboxes, and one audio essay. The title can be understood in two different ways; as in matters that concern blood or that blood matters, i.e. is a matter of significance. The aim of this project is to investigate parenthood in a bodily and physical sense.The red color refers to the inside of our bodies, infrared light, aspects of control and control loss, and the feeling of anger culturally connected to the color. Some of the paintings are placed in light boxes. These are utilized to enhance the bodily feeling of the works and to mimic the red light that appears when you shine a flashlight through your hand or close your eyes to the sun. The lightboxes also refer to advertising and enhance the display aspect of scenes that might be regarded as personal or private matters.




Skin is a penetrable border
2022

Skin is a penetrable border, 2022
Audio essay, 6:25min
Voice over and sound production by Agnes Aldén

Reading/performance at Tegnerforbundet
Photo by Maya Belfiore

Part of the project Blood Matters.

Blood Matters is a project that contains large-scale drawings, smaller aquarelle paintings mounted in lightboxes, and one audio essay. The title can be understood in two different ways; as in matters that concern blood or that blood matters, i.e. is a matter of significance. The aim of this project is to investigate parenthood in a bodily and physical sense.The red color refers to the inside of our bodies, infrared light, aspects of control and control loss, and the feeling of anger culturally connected to the color. Some of the paintings are placed in light boxes. These are utilized to enhance the bodily feeling of the works and to mimic the red light that appears when you shine a flashlight through your hand or close your eyes to the sun. The lightboxes also refer to advertising and enhance the display aspect of scenes that might be regarded as personal or private matters.




Cirkelns kvadratur (Squaring the circle)
2022

Cirkelns kvadratur, 2022
transferprint (after aquarelle painting) on blue ceramic second hand tiles, aluminum frame
120x75cm
All photos by Henning Klungtvedt

Public comission for Vasakronan/ Art Made This in the parking garage Perukmakaren in Gothenburg, SE

If you say that someone squares the circle, you mean that they bring together two things which are normally thought to be so different that they cannot exist together. In this project, the title reffers to the inextricable combination of being a parent of small kids and still having to work. 

©Clara Aldén