Anastasia Ax (1979, SE)
Trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Art, Copenhagen, the School of Photography at Gothenburg University, the Department of Fine Arts, Valand, Gothenburg, and Royal University of Fine Arts, Stockholm
Lives and works in Stockholm
The world created by Anastasia Ax is characterised by chaos, oppression and physical pain. She explores the various forms taken by violence and its consequences. It can be a matter of external violence inflicted on one person by another – often related to issues of power structure – or else of introvert violence expressing itself in self-mutilation and maiming. By contrasting these elements one against the other Ax aims to reveal that even the oppressor is a victim.
For the exhibition in the Göteborg Konsthall Anastasia Ax presents an entirely new work in which drawing, sculpture and performance combine. The piece
The Kid Below only received its final form during its initial performance on opening day. Ax performed before an audience to live music by the London musician Bill Kouligas. The room is decorated with sheets of white drawing paper, and on these a number of white organic figures are located. Everywhere are traces of the black ink that flowed during the performance.
Anastasia Ax often mixes different techniques in her works such as sketching, sculpture, video and performance. Her approach to sculptural surfaces is as if they were drawing paper. An instance of this is the somewhat older work
I Witness Report (2007) in which black ink flows from what looks like wounds in child-size papier-mâché sculptures.
The Kid Below, 2008
Performance/installation
Ink on paper and nine plaster sculptures approx 190 cm tall