Jonas Malmberg - 2018

"The 2018 Fredrik Roos foundation scholarship is awarded to Jonas Malmberg for an artistry that is based on a Nordic, romantic tradition - a tradition he problematizes in an extremely intelligent way."

INTERVIEW BY JONAS MALMBERG

Iselin Page – Curator, Artipelag

Although you are a young artist who has recently graduated from art school, your works testify to a mature process that is focused towards an expression and towards specific materials. The color palette returns and the motifs slide into each other. Your collages and your painting have the same foundation and are installed without hierarchy in relation to each other. I perceive you as an artist who immerses himself in one thing for a long time, therefore I want to start by asking what your artistic process looks like?

When I start working, I have a sense of which direction I want to go and then it's like a negotiation about how to get there. First I paint something that I don't think quite right and paint over it, then I think "no, it was probably pretty good actually" and try to scrape out the old one. I have given up the idea of ​​making a sensible basic drawing, which I used to be very careful about. That's why I started chalking, because it goes faster. I work in parallel with different things all the time; when I'm in the studio I paint and at home I sit with my collages in front of the computer. Often I work for as long a period as possible, mostly to filter out my own spontaneous impressions. It probably has to do with the fact that I find it difficult to see myself as an original thinker. I come up with things little by little, remove something and add. I see something in town or read something and think "maybe that wasn't so stupid" and then I take it in; it is a constant renegotiation. I also set up what I'm working on around me to see if it works at scale. Often I paint for a very long time on different parts until I think it works. I can easily get stuck in a corner and paint very carefully on any detail. Maybe no one even looks at that part anymore.

What makes a work work or not?

I have come to the conclusion that it is sound. When the paintings don't work, it's like lots of flickering noises. Then I try to work until it has solidified completely, until it has become quiet. It might sound a bit strange, but I want the paintings to have different tempos, not to be completely consistent. I want certain processes to go 23 ISELIN PAGE Superintendent, Artipelag TIME & PLACE June 2018, Malmö ARTIPELAG fast so that it stands in contrast to something that has taken a long time. Then they must meet and harmonize, so that it becomes quiet. It's hard to get any closer than that.

There is something very dark in your works, not only in the motifs but also in the color palette. The gray scale against the dark green and blue reappears in all your paintings and collages. What is it about the dark that interests you?

This obscure expression has probably been partly created because the model is usually quite rigid. I think it has arisen as some kind of contrast to my collages, which are quite hard. I print collagen in grayscale because I want to come up with the colors myself, I want it to be soft. A color often wanders out of one painting and into another, they belong together so far, even though I see each painting as a work in itself. The darkness helps me harmonize the paintings. Each one is its own reality or its own form, but there is something obscure that they all carry. It just gets darker and darker every time I paint. I have realized that there is something there that right now feels very important. There is something in this darkness that feels safe.

Your digital collages began as templates for your paintings, but have evolved into works in their own right. Do you still see collagen as a first stage, as a preparation for painting?

The collage started as a tool before working with the paintings, then I became interested in collage as an expression in itself. I realized after a while that I had been doing it for years without reflecting that it came so naturally. The collage Boardwalk (p.16), for example, I didn't think would become a painting from the beginning, but it turned out that way. In the studio, I don't treat collagen with silk gloves, it stifles all forms of creativity, so the work is quite damaged. Yes cut it up and scanned it into different pieces and then put it back together digitally.

Tape often returns in different ways. When I look at your collages, it seems obvious that the tape comes from there, because it has a function and holds the pieces together, but the tape also appears as a material in different contexts, both in and around your collages and paintings. How did tape find a place in your works?

I use a lot of tape. It's partly because it's fast, I don't want to think too much. Once I get an input, it has to go away. It's about working at different paces, one month I can work for a very long time with a painting. In between, I think "I can't take it, I'm going to screw this up", and then I put the painting away and try to put something else together very quickly. After all, both are equally important and everything forms some kind of whole in the end. The composition contains different tempos and there is something very fast in the tape that I keep coming back to. Lately, I have also used a lot of tape in exhibition contexts, which means that there is a change of pace in the works. The paintings are made on wooden panels and are quite heavy, they will last for a long time. The tape, on the other hand, only survives the exhibition. It becomes like different time spaces, next to each other. There is something about it that appeals to me and that I think is important.

There is a duality in your works that is interesting and is highlighted by the contrast between the materials, what remains next to what disappears, or the digital in relation to painting. This duality also exists to a certain extent in your motifs, in the constructed combined with the natural, or the abstract side by side with the figurative. How do you think about it?

My relationship with nature is very twofold. I mix trees that I have photographed with painted trees standing next to each other. The European heritage of ideas is something I am very interested in; it is a bit of a European specialty to try to control and create one's surroundings. Just this romanticization of animals and nature and seeing spiritual aspects in nature, while we are inside and poking all the time. INTERVIEW 25 To be honest, I love the constructed, like disciplined gardens. Or better yet, romantic gardens that are meant to look natural, but aren't because there's a thought or idea behind it. They are an expression that someone has wanted to create something genuine, but as soon as you have wanted to create something natural, you have actually failed. When I was going to write my application for the Roos scholarship, I thought "what am I doing - I paint animals". It's so easy, but it doesn't have to be if you dare to take it seriously. I don't want to be ironic in my works. I have many defense mechanisms and can be quite ironic in private; then at least I want to be honest when I paint. I want the viewer to take my work seriously. I want to invite the viewer, but I also want to leave a space for the viewer to think for himself. I myself have never liked being written on my nose when I see art or read a book. I don't like megaphones, I like shades and gray scales.

When you talk about the viewer, I get the feeling that you are also talking about yourself. Is it because you act as an observer to some extent, in your artistry?

Yes, it is so. I probably stay on my edge, even in relation to myself. It's hard to switch off, you're thinking all the time. This is how I build my landscapes, they are the result of accumulated impressions over a long period of time. I spend a lot of time sitting and watching, that's probably what takes up so much time. Landscapes have something, a horizon is so simple but it says something, it is an entrance. I can relate to that. There is a start, you invite. I think it is important that the works are inclusive, that they evoke some kind of association in the viewer. As a painter, you usually work by yourself and then you hang up your works. After all, I can't influence how someone perceives the works, I have to trust that they can take care of themselves, that people look at them and feel something. Unfortunately, I can't be there and there is a sadness in that.

Works in descending order:
Boardwalk - 2018
Blue tree - 2018
Horizon (Delphinium consolida) - 2017
On the train - 2018

For more info, please visit Jonas' portfolio.