Anton Karlsson

During the summer before Konstfack, I worked with some wood that I had collected. The pieces of wood had been pieces of wood for a while and were already in the process of decomposition. I pounded, sawed, whittled, split and chopped! Later in the autumn, I brought in these pieces of wood that had been lying outside since the summer. When they came into my studio and I saw them again, I was moved. They had continued to decompose, grow and live on after my hands had been there. And then I saw it – my hands hadn’t let go, and where my hand stopped or started was now dissolved. We were the same, we were united. I remember how it felt as if I and the pieces of wood were bathing together in the pond.
The pond, the salamander, the mushroom and the resin – all have a connection to the original, the magical and the powerful in my experience of the world and thereby my artistic practice.