The exhibition Later that night at Gallery Konstepidemin is Mattias Härenstam’s second solo exhibition in Gothenburg. The exhibit contains a series of five hanging sculptures made of wood, a series of woodcuts and videos. Waking up the dead or reversing the finality of death and creating new life might be one of the oldest dreams of humanity, from Orpheus to Mary Shelly’s Dr Frankenstein, and the popcultural fascination for zombies of our own time. Mattias Härenstam himself describes the sculptures as:

“attempts to transform dead matter into something living – something that can be said to be a truly animistic way of thinking about sculpting: A tree is a living object, then it is chopped down and made into dead wood, and my process becomes an attempt to give it new life. My own personal reason for making these sculptures was a naïve but intense wish to bring back a loved one who passed away in a sudden and violent manner.”

The hanging wood sculptures mix bodies and body parts with the naturally twisted forms of trees and creates something indefinable, with elements of both beauty and discomfort. The process is very physical, and it is in this physical interaction that the matter is being charged with new life. This transformation eliminates the borders between the active, living subjects (humans) and the passive, dead objects (everything else).

Mattias Härenstam (born 1971 in Gothenburg) studied art at Kunstakademiet in Bergen and Städelsscule in Frankfurt. He resides and works in both Oslo and Fjällbacka, specializing in sculpture (usually made of wood and stone), graphic (woodcuts), film and video. Among his recent exhibitions there’s been a solo exhibition at the Vigeland Museum in Oslo earlier this year, Nils Aas Kunstverksted (2015), Konstnärshuset, Stockholm (2014), Art-Claims-Impulse Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin (2014), Norske Grafikere, Oslo (2014), Luleå Konsthall (2013), Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo (2012), Tromsø Kunstforening (2012) and Galleri 54 (2012). Härenstam also participated in a group exhibition at the Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, Oslo (2015), Galerie am Körnerpark, Berlin (2015), Whitechapel Gallery, London (2014), Herzliya Museum for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (2014) and more. His work is represented at the Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, Oslo; in the collections of Oslo Kommun and the norwegian Kulturrådet. Härenstam’s first short movie, Rekonstruktion, was shown at the Gothenburg Film Festival 2013 and was nominated the very same year to the Amanda-award in the category for best short (the Norwegian equivalent to Guldbaggen). At the moment he is in the final stages of the production of his next movie, with the working title ”Twenty-four Seven”.