ANNA-LINDA GABRIEL

f.1976

Glass and the art of glassblowing as means of expression has endless possibilites. The craft requires a constant presence of the maker/performer and the glass as a medium. The dialogue between balance and inbalance is crucial for the end result. To Anna-Linda Gabriel, the glass combined with light is an essential source. She is using glass and its dimentions to explore identity and the everyday objects she creates as messengers.

As a child, Anna-Linda Gabriel was introduced to the world of glass at the Cobolt Work (Blaafarveværket) in Modum, Norway. She describes the old cobalt mine, its distinct blue powder and its chemical transformation used in the glass production, as suggestive. Later, the curiosity about the whole glassmaking process inspired her to seek an apprentice in her home community. In addition, she sought knowledge from other glass studios and was recommended applying for the Glass School at Kosta. Since 1998, Anna-Linda Gabriel has engaged herself in the art of glassmaking, and advanced and refined her own workmethods and techniques according to what she seeks to execute.

Anna-Linda who has family and ancestral roots in Norway, The Philippines and Italy, has done research on her rich, historic identity. Thus, it becomes natural to explore culture, heritage and history where she is situated today, in Småland. This is imbedded within her artistic language. Her aim is to find a common ground regardless of origin, legacy and culture.

This exhibition För Barnet inom /Before the Child, is centered around the very beginning of a human's life as an embryo. Anna-Linda sees the fetus as a carrier of potential and a unique state of the origin of a human being. Nature is a source which provides development. The aim of the exhibition is to create a sphere where people can meet as equals in a crafted dimension by the artist. The objects are a reminder of our common origin – with us as carriers of the fetus state of total, new untouched presence before life.

Victoria Larsen
Artist and writer with master degree in professional writing

FÖR BARNET INOM

23/10 - 19/12 2021

En gång har vi alla varit ett foster. Därför är vi alla bärare av ett tillstånd av total närvaro, fulla av potential, sårbara, sökande och i kontakt med våra ursprungliga behov. Jag vill dela med mig av något som är långt bortom det mätbara. Något som jag framförallt vill påminna mig själv om. Det vackra glaset ger oändliga möjligheter och jag vill ge tillbaks. För barnet inom.

I utställningen För barnet inom ser ni en avskalad version av den
interaktiva utställningen Note to Self som visades på glasmuseet The Glass Factory i somras. Utställningen bestod av en minnesbank i form av föremål jag sparat sedan jag började med glas och som hade det gemensamt att de bar på ett dolt meddelande. Föremålen vecklades ut till nyproducerade interaktiva installationer och ett frodig ljudlandskap baserade på dessa meddelanden.

I de verk jag har producerat inför denna utställning, försöker jag inte behaga ögat. Föremålen är bara det de är. Eller en utveckling av vem de behöver vara för att hitta balans. Lysande Glowies i mörkret. Innan eller efter nästa kamp för skönheten vid livet.

Nedan följer en text jag har skrivit med anledning av verket Glowies i mörkret. Att skriva är en viktig del av min process även om det inte är så ofta jag delar den med en publik. Här skissar jag fram stämningen och kärnan i det jag vill förmedla.

English:

A poem that seeks to reveal the state of mind that tries to kidnap me when I am weak and inattentive. A state of mind that will never seek to be a mother, daughter, a lover or a friend. This poem is about kidnaping the state of mind that tries to define and give you value from where you were born and with which resources. But ultimately the poem is actually about the constant search for balance and the meeting between two extremes: the longing to dismiss others perception of who we are in the context of our history, as well as a poem that wants me to be proud, present and true to my rural instincts from those roots that we all share and that equals us. My newest works are not trying to please the eye. They just are who they are. Glowies in the dark, before or after the battle for the beauty of life.

FROM A TRAVEL WITHIN

Dolphins born here.
Are rescued from instant wilderness, a sphere
Guess they didnt know then
Ever going nowhere is
Being at home
Born in a powerful cage
Seen by a friendly face.
Being at home
Becoming the space
Loosing track of its offsprings pace.

Constantly explaining the sun living in my face.

Moving from borders finding it permanently traced.
A tatoo from a friendly encounter Meetings that ignore to greet.
Making stories that matter
We will never be friends

Anna-Linda Gabriel, october 2021