Meeting Ylva Frick

Let's meet 24 year old artist Ylva Frick for an interview. The first 19 years of her life Ylva lived in a small village in Sweden. Her mother worked as a nurse and later started a window renovation company. Her father being a judo champion retired from his job as computer engineer and now helps Ylva's mother with the company and does some more administrative work at the judo club. Ylva like her elder sister went to a Montessori school. She played the drums at a school orchestra and founded a punkrock band with a friend when she was 14.

After school Ylva went to Gothenburg to work and stand on her own feet. She entered Gothenburg →Konstskola with dreamy drawings and paintings inspired by Frida Kahlo and Salvador Dalí. Ylva now refers to this period as dramatic. After a performance workshop that Ylva experiences like "Yes! This is something!“ her art production opens up to other media.

"Slututställning våren" May 2011, from →ylva.frick.blog.se

Two years ago Ylva decided to move to Iceland to study at the →Art Academy in Reykjavík. After the summer she starts the final year of her bachelor's program.

How do you perceive Iceland?

Ylva: When I first came I thought it was not so different from Sweden.  The languages are related but Icelandic has a totally different tone. Anders Kreuger could hear that I have an icelandic accent in my english. I had to start an icelandic course and learn as fast as possible to get anything out of my education there.

With the financial crisis and the protest movement shaking Iceland Reykjavík has gotten a former Punk musician as mayor and the country is being regarded for having wise laws on open government and transparency now. How does this political environment have an influence on your work?

There are two sides to this. On the one hand it is very easy to go out in the streets and do a performance and get accepted, get encouraged. It is very easy to just go out and do things, people will think it is great. On the other hand when you do a political piece you want to break some kind of barrier, you want to work against something and sometimes it feels like there is nothing to work against! Of course icelandic society is not perfect in any way. But it is a big difference going out in Gothenburg or Reykjavík.

How did it happen that you are now here in Salzburg?

Our school regularly receives the program of the Summer Academy. The program with the courses sounded great and I also met people who have been here. I wanted to come last summer already but I was in Sweden then so I applied this year. And I received an Austrian grant. 

What was it that caught your interest in Olga Chernysheva's and Anna Jermolaewa's course?

I read about the course „In Search Of An Image“ -how to visualize the heart of an art piece, connecting an idea to an image. I have arrived at a point where I don't want to think too much about a concept, but I want to trust the feeling and I want to trust my eyes, creating my own visual language the course sounded interesting to me.

How does the course go so far?

I really enjoy it. We have very interesting discussions. It has practically been us showing each other both older pieces and also what we are doing right now. From when we meet in one day to what has happened until the next day.  We go through anyone who wants to show something and that can be someone who wants to show another artist's piece just for inspiration or to connect it with something that we talked about. We are a small group of 9 people and we are really lucky because otherwise we could not have this format of getting to know each other and talk in the way that we do.

And your course is also focussed on reading quite a lot?

We have not been reading too much. We read three of Walter Benjamin's essays and we were working visually from them. And we are working with Anders Kreuger's curatorial course. All of the participants in his course have written descriptive texts based on images that they got. We received their texts but not the images and we are supposed to create images from the texts. I am still working on how to visualize it. First I considered to visualize it by just drawing or painting it. I did it rather abstract but it just felt like an exercise. Then I made a digital roman mosaic through a website. The text that I chose is a very precise description of a woman's portrait. The description is more exact than when you would talk about a person. Now I have put up an advertisement saying:“Hi there! I am in search for a person that fits this description: pale blue eyes like the summer sky, warm and receptive, a brow line that tips forward casting a soft shadow and dips sideways towards the right shoulder, a sway of terracotta red hair that moves gently in the other direction with rube red lips that are calm and compassionate. If you yourself fit this description or know someone who does please send an email to ylva.frick@gmail.com. Best regards, Ylva“ I have put up 50 of these ads all around town. The course is called „In Search Of An Image“ and now I am in search of a person.

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After I switch off the microphone I ask the artist were she has been in the night between the 23rd and the 24th of July 2014. Ylva Frick refrains from answering that question.