From Gurli Kruber's 'Det byggda på jorden, platsen på hög'
Gurli Kruber is a third year BA student in Textile at Konstfack in Stockholm. Her work has been probing our curiosity and earning our admiration in a number of exhibited occasions to date, including at Konstnärshuset last year and a group exhibition she co-curated with peers at the grand Eric Ericsonhallen, a stone's throw away from Moderna Museet. It's interesting to note in light of the the discipline she is enrolled in at said school, that her works seemingly have appeared to deviate away at times from tangible traces of textile. This however is aligned with a zeigeist-situaiton du jour at this school where boundaries between various programs are increasingly dissolving. At prior conversation with the artist we were told that her sculptural works and installations based out of plaster inform physical sites which she experienced over time and that have latched on to her mind. Her artistic approach sees her abstracting and processing these specific sites merely from the memory of them, by way of various material unions and juxtapositions in her studio. While the actual or exact site remains in the clandestine for the viewer, thought is heavily brought to passed and ancient time. The visual identity mirrors the feel of bas-reliefs, mural paintings and artifacts. Where figurative motifs dawns before the eyes on them, there is an inclusion however of contemporary scenes in the midst. Perhaps one could toy with the idea of an inverted "archelogical" excavation of sorts of the quotidian. What is the most impressive is the meticulous command of her fingertip, in so far executing assemblage-like sculptures and installations which join pedestrian and found materials like bricks at great apparent balance, without omitting any aesthetical qualities out of the results, which is where other art students often tend to fall flat and box themselves in form over substance. We are absolutely convinved Gurli will be one to watch and one whose work will see its proper due in time to come going forward. Counting grads down to a shortlist of favourites, Gurli would be among the obvious choices this year.
All images above from Gurli Kruber's 'Det byggda på jorden, platsen på hög'
Gurli Kruber's presentation 'Det byggda på jorden, platsen på hög' can currently be viewed alongside presentations of the BA3 Class in Textile at Konstfack, www.konstfack.se