YLVA WESTERLUND

The Immortal Neobiocosmonaut- Comic book, 2011.

2011-11-08T11:21:00.000-08:00

New issue with additional poster in colour.

Dismantling/ On way towards "A", 2011

2011-04-15T03:22:00.001-07:00

Wall painting, painting on board and mixed media research material. Project on the rediscovery of artist Randi Fisher´s original painting made 1951 for the junior school, grades F-6 in Landskrona, Sweden. During the 1980´s the painting disappeared under a layer of wallpaper to later be found the 19 january 2011. Installation view from the exhibition "Randi Fisher- 1947 års kvinna" at Skissernas Museum, Lund, 2011. Photo: Ylva Westerlund and Caroline Andersson.

S.G.T., 2010

2010-12-17T11:27:00.000-08:00

S.G.T. (Skjut, gräv och tig/ Shoot, dig and keep quiet). Mural made in cooporation with Minerva Cuevas in the exhibition "Beyond Borders", Skissernas Museum, Lund, Sweden. The painting/drawing was made with reference to an architectual blue print and executed in blue and purple pen. In addition a shelf stacked with National Geographic is crossing the mural. "S.G.T" was made as a part of Cuevas installation "Societal Studies PD Extinction". Photo: Emma Krantz.

Monkey see, Monkey do, 2010

2010-12-17T11:24:00.000-08:00

Christian Andersson / Maja Borg / Tamar Guimarães / Emma Kay / Runo Lagomarsino / Laibach / Ilias Papailiakis / Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa / Magnus Thierfelder / Ylva Westerlund
Curated by Anna Johansson, Emma Reichert, Elena Tzotzi / Tetriss Produktion
September 17th - January 23rd

Social norms and codes indicate the established and approved way of doing things, regulate behaviour and act as an informal system of social control. Norms evolve through time and vary between religions, cultures and societies, although certain fundamental values have been considered constant throughout the history of mankind. And yet, the paradox is that these values have continuously been overruled in the name of what is claimed to be common universal principles such as freedom, equality, justice and democracy.
The subject matter of the exhibition Monkey See Monkey Do revolves around the complex mechanisms that cause a discrepancy between how we think and how we act and engage with issues embedded in the realm of ethics and everyday dilemmas. A central question that is raised throughout the exhibition is whether and to which extent we have a choice, or if we are in a constant unreflecting status quo of "monkey see, monkey do" - an expression that refers to the act of imitation without an actual understanding or questioning of the reason behind the action.
Monkey See Monkey Do develops like a trail of thought between the art works that jointly, and in conversation with each other, unfold a narrative that explores the various ways in which we respond to the rules, beliefs and attitudes that affect and regulate our lives. Political ideas, scientific goals, religious convictions, legal systems, education and family are some examples of social institutions that can easily turn into tools of oppression when understood as a homogenous entity, instead of a manifold set of values.

Formalized inhumanism is a beautiful Thing, 2010

2010-06-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

Drawing in graphite, 40 cm x 30 cm.

Manipulation!, 2009

2009-06-10T04:03:00.000-07:00

Manipulation!
MKF c/o gallery Signal, Malmö, 2009

Lecture and exhibition with works of Ana Mendieta, Saskia Holmqvist, Beata Fransson and Ylva Westerlund.

"The Immortal Neobiocosmonaut- Ashes to ashes...", 2009

2009-05-17T07:06:00.000-07:00

Installation view from the exhibition "Notes from the Living Dead Museum" at Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland, 2009. A 12 meters long wall-drawing in charcoal moving through the museum.

//..NOTES FROM THE LIVING DEAD MUSEUM
Ylva Westerlund - Runo Lagomarsino - Olivia Plender
Artists Ylva Westerlund, Runo Lagomarsino and Olivia Plender recently hosted lectures at the Living Art Museum in regards to the works and influences at their current exhibition at the re-titled museum; The Living Dead Museum. In their lectures the artists addressed the early twentieth century British youth movement Kibbo Kift Kindred (1920-1951), led by artist and novelist John Hargrave, parallels between the bank crash and street-revolt against the ruling regime in Iceland and the Argentinian economic crisis and the resulting riots, with a focus on colonialism and rise of nationalistic nostalgia, and ideas of an artist-run museums, collection policies and collection items and if such institutions are in fact zombies.
Notes from The Living Dead Museum consists of older works by the artists and new works that were produced especially for this exhibition: videworks, coal-drawings, installations and a work/comment on the identity and „look/image“ of The Living Art Museum. The exhibition intervenes into the collection and archive project that started at the 30th anniversary of the museum at the beginning of 2008. Since then, the main focus has been on revisiting the history of the institution, a thorough processing of its archives and a re-evaluation of the objectives of artist-run initiatives.//

"The Living Dead Museum", 2009

2009-05-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

"THE LIVING DEAD MUSEUM"
Lecture and work on the look/image of The Living Art Museum, realized at the exhibition "Notes from The Living Dead Museum", 2009.

One part on the work consisted of a lecture which had the form of a proposal. Excerpts from the lecture:"..So here we are at The Living Art Museum, and I thought that instead of talking about my art works, I would present some of my ideas as a proposition very much in line with the works of the German theorist and filmmaker Boris Groys. To exemplify what I'm going to propose to you, I will use examples from works of other artists as well as references to literature and theory. And my hope is that, by the end of this presentation/screening, you will agree with me to rename this place: The Living Dead Museum.."

The other part was the changing of actual logos and websites of The Living Art Museum to a new text and look- "THE LIVING DEAD MUSEUM".

Friends forever- a Socialist revolution!, 2008

2008-11-27T05:43:00.000-08:00

"Friends forever- a Socialist revolution!", poster/ drawing, 100 x 70 cm. With candles below. Installation view, Landings Projectspace, Vestfossen, Norway.

Non Serviam, 2008

2008-11-27T05:31:00.000-08:00

Iaspis presents the Open house, autumn 2008. Participating artists: Malin Arnell, Antippa , Kader Attia, Victoria Brännström, Kerstin Ergenzinger, Athena Farrokhzad, Boris Groys, Roza El-Hassan, Emma Hedditch, Anna Livion Ingvarsson, Hristina Ivanoska, Andreas Johansson, Gülsün Karamustafa, Eli Leven, Metahaven (Daniel van der Velden), Warren Neidich, Suela Qoshja, Laercio Redondo, Emily Roysdon, Pia Wergius, Ylva Westerlund

//…In her IASPIS studio Ylva Westerlund is showing videos and drawings under the heading Non Serviam. Focusing on the voice and how it sometimes escapes notions of gender and body, in one of her works Ylva Westerlund has found her point of departure in the style of singing known as ”growl”. In a filmed interview Angela Gossow, lead singer of band Arch Enemy, explains the physiological parameters of growl technique. The installation also includes an interview with Cristine Sarrimo, who is a professor in literature at Malmö University, dealing with how accusations and confessions are manifested in a post-religious legal system.
Video titles; "The technique of Growl", 2008, "Post-religious confessions", 2008, "Downward Pentagram", 2008

Tuez le flic en vous, 2008

2008-11-27T05:26:00.001-08:00

Landings Project Space proudly presents Tuez le flic en vous, a collaboration by Ylva Westerlund and Beata Fransson. The exhibition is a revision of Om den värld som vecklar ut sig när A vill ha något av B, shown earlier this year at Konsthall C in Stockholm.

”Tuez le flic en vous” –kill the pig inside – appeared as a slogan on walls all over Paris during the student protests of 1968. This demand was in keeping with Michel Foucault’s writings in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. This book is the point of origin for Tuez le flic en vous, which explores a society of surveillance and the policing of its citizens. The operating theater at the University of Uppsala and the forests surrounding the Försvarets Radioanstalt becomes the backdrop for a game with a revolving cast of characters.
Beata Fransson was born in 1977 and holds and MFA from Malmö Art Academy. Previous exhibitions include Göteborgs konsthall, The Hasselblad Center, and Rooseum. She lives and works in Stockholm. Ylva Westerlund was born in 1975 and holds an MFA from Malmö Art Academy. Previous exhibitions include IASPIS and Bonniers Konsthall. She lives and works in Stockholm and Malmö.

Exorcism, 2007, Dust to Dust, 2008, Free at last, 2007

2008-01-31T05:51:00.000-08:00

"Tell a friend", Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, 2008

The prefix exo-, as in exorcism, means the unknown, or that which is outside. In Ylva Westerlund’s video Exorcism, 2006, the relationship to the unknown is ambivalent and appears to comprise both fear and longing. The video shows a blackboard upon which a naked woman records a formula, before she literally disappears. The formula is the Sexuation formula devised by the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. It imposes a patriarchal structure, but seems to exclude women who thus cease to exist.
In other works by Westerlund, such as Dust to Dust and Free at Last (Expanding Universe), the logical solutions appear to call for both total freedom and, at the same time, annihilation. Her drawing Free at Last (Expanding Universe) takes its starting point in the mathematician Albert Einstein’s formula of the visible expansion of the universe and presents a schematic drawing of a body that expands and is torn apart, like a rebellious corpus delecti.

"C", 2005

2008-01-31T05:24:00.000-08:00

LUST FOR LIFE, 2006
The Breeder Gallery, Athens, Greece
Sture Johannesson (SE), Mika Taanila (FIN), Magnus Thierfelder (SE), Alex Villar (USA) & Ylva Westerlund (SE).
Curated by Elena Tzotzi 

//…Another way of observing and translating is to be found in the work of Ylva Westerlund where we encounter intellectual experiments and ideologies in peculiar hybrids. Westerlund constructs analogies between opposite, incompatible standpoints offering an apparent, but quite logical consensus. In the installation entitled C (2004) the story of Frankenstein’s monster is linked to gender theory. The idea to introduce C as a new subject seems to be the only logical solution in order to achieve a total and just equality. But nevertheless, by stating a new order one automatically creates a new set of rules and regulations.

Exercises in Triangulation, 2004

2008-01-31T05:20:00.000-08:00

"Exercises in Triangulation", Rooseum Konsthall, Malmö, 2004

//…In the video Exercises in Triangulation Ylva Westerlund starts from a scientific method of putting light on the political rhetoric from a new perspective. The movie describes incompatible ideas being put together and creating a new, third variation. The theories are introduced very matter-of-factly in the video, which reminds of a scientific presentation. But the emblem of the constructed sender, which is exposed, to raise our doubts and make us question things questions the objectiveness of the movie.

The Principle of Hope, 2003

2008-01-31T04:36:00.001-08:00

Frame magazine 1/2004 "A New Wave of Political Consciousness"

//...Or as the young artist Ylva Westerlund points out in her remarkable project in which she sews old-fashioned flags and banners for groups such as "Sweden's Satanist-Feminist Association Engelbrekt": in a situation in which loosely knit single-issue groups or activists with guerrilla strategies are to come together around certain values and goals, we find ideologies in peculiar hybrids. In one of her videos she has an alien dressed as an orator say: "Let us speak with a two-edged tongue". Westerlund traces popular, well-meaning contemporary strategies and slogans to their, at times, highly murky origins and offshoots. She shows how our desire to do good (and BE good), together with the longing for group solidarity, can at times get us to say yes to things we shouldn't. This was also the breeding ground for 1930s fascism, as Westerlund quite calmly points out. Westerlund's unwavering thinking reveals new opportunities for political art.//