Ingela Ihrman

In a playful way, Ingela Ihrman’s work explores what it means to be human. With humour and sincerity, she lifts questions concerning identity and belonging by looking at different life forms and how we relate to one another. She focuses on strong emotions connected to everyday life, such as lust, longing and loneliness.

Ingela Ihrman’s artistic approach is driven by curiosity and a desire to understand, where scientific facts and field studies may function as points of departure. She works with sculpture, performance, video and text, and often uses familiar and fragile everyday materials. In her work she questions how we systematically categorise and exploit nature – that we ourselves are a part of – while at the same time we wistfully elevate it as something untouched and primordial

With the help of sculptural costumes, she literally assumes the forms of other living species while exploring the possibilities and limitations of her own body. What does it mean to be someone or something? How is a sense of self formed within a body? What significance does the body have for how we see the world and how we are seen by others? A costume becomes an extra layer of skin and flesh that simultaneously encapsulates and hides contours in favour of another form. Ihrman views her performances as social situations where the viewer participates in the work together with the artis

The exhibition at Malmö Konsthall will be the largest presentation of Ingela Ihrman’s work to date.

Ihrman was born in Kalmar in 1985 and studied at Konstfack in Stockholm. She lives and works in Malmö. She has previously exhibited at Åstorps konsthall (2022); Karlin Studios / FUTURA, Prague (2021); the Nordic Pavilion, 58th Venice Biennale (2019); Kristianstads konsthall (2018); der TANK, Institut Kunst, FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel (2017) and Tensta konsthall, Stockholm (2016), among others.