Ida Ekblad presented solo exhibition I’m four years old hosted by Tokyo’s XYZ Collective and Freedman Fitzpatrick which ran March 18 to April 15.
The Oslo-based artist works across painting, sculpture, filmmaking, collaborations with musicians, performance as well as poetry. The introduction to the press release is a text written by Ekblad called ‘Put it on record’:
Lac insects
Italian needle tin
Cigarette card and porch
Nipponophone sleeve details
Vocalion Record and sleeve
Puritan Record and sleeve
Domino Record and sleeve
Etched reverse of one sided record
Indian Record and sleeve
Show off pied piper sales
Sands of time, man and beast,
Golden Pyramid needle tin
Notice on reverse of
Lyric Sleeve
Disco Gramophone record and sleeve
Using an aesthetic language that is both decorative and aggressive, the works use techniques that are considered both trendy and outdated, with ‘tacky’ associations of “puffy paint, rose pattern kitchen towels, run-of-the-mill graffiti, steam punk, b-girl aesthetic or airbrushing.”
The press release describes Ekblad’s process as one that veers away from rationalising or ironing things out, and towards ‘hunchy’ moments of ‘peak everything.’**