스킵네비게이션

Born 1964 in Västerâs, Sweden

Lives in Berlin, Germany

 

Karl HOLMQVIST, Untitled series, 2020, Ballpoint pen on paper, 56×42 cm (17), 42×56cm

 

Karl HOLMQVIST is insistent about words. Through books, performances, posters, sculptures, lamps, videos, and sound works, HOLMQVIST has for more than 30 years been testing the word, not in order to come to an actual conclusion, but in order to explore its possibilities. HOLMQVIST uses cheap, accessible materials such as black and white photocopies, sharpies on walls, and ballpoint pens on paper to create his work. Since the late eighties, where he placed Give Poetry a Try stickers in New York subways, HOLMQVIST has repeatedly tried to encourage people to write and perform poetry. In HOLMQVIST’s universe, text can take a great many forms. He has a longtime interest in found text and the tradition of concrete poetry, and he uses overheard speech, advertising slogans, newspaper headlines, song lyrics, familiar idioms, and axioms to produce a non-linear, non-narrative treatment of language that can generate new meaning.

Included among HOLMQVIST’s visual references are art historical reproductions, rock iconography, and geometric mandala patterns, which are equated and juxtaposed with single words, a pop song or a disembodied piece of text. HOLMQVIST’s works are as much concrete material as they are tools to address social, political, and cultural issues and current intersectional concerns such as racism, homophobia, and gender inequalities. Karl HOLMQVIST has published more than 30 collections of poetry, and he constantly shifts in scale between private intimate book experiences and readings, to monumental public posters and sculptures.