From the beginning, Eva Hild had a curiosity of and interest in creative expression. Although she knew from the start that she was an artist, she says it did not happen immediately. “From my early years, I have been fascinated by body, shape, color, material, handicraft, and nature. But, it took some time to realize that art could be my main occupation, a profession.”
Eva spent a period studying physiotherapy, but later decided to pursue the art world fulltime. Studying the arts for five years, she earned a Master of Fine Arts from the University in Gothenburg, Sweden, and pursued advanced studies beyond that.
“I am convinced that my earlier physiological studies nourishes my art,” Eva says. “My main artistic entrance is psychological but the sculptures contain a lot of references to the actual body, like balance, movement, weight, and positions.”
Ceramics and culture was her natural transition into the art world, although Eva admits it was a long process to discover how to transfer her art from specific material.
“I relate to my own body, and love how three-dimensional work could have such an impact and interaction. Clay is still my starting point, but today I work in different materials depending on expression, complexity, size, sensibility and function,” she says.
Inspired by her own inner drive, everyday life, literature, and music, Eva accredits her hands, body, and brain as some of her most valuable tools to create. She adds: “When slowly hand building my ceramic sculptures, I use different thin metal plates in rounded shapes: metal kidneys. They are made from thin flexible spring steel and used for shaping and smoothing the surface of the growing clay shape. She also uses sand paper in different stages, making lines smooth and giving specific expressions to her art. “My best (and most annoying) personal equipment is a face-mask. I use it almost everyday, and it protects me from breathing dust and chemicals.”
Eva also relies on her inner creativity, relationships and psychology when working. “My inspiration is the ever-changing landscape of my own life and environment. The sculptural body is a delicate continuously flowing entity in thinly built material,” she says. “It reflects varying degrees of external and internal pressure, and how, as a consequence, perception of inner and outer space is changed or challenged.”
She describes her sculptures as abstract, organic, rhythmical self-portraits that are running to and from in a smooth and continuous motion. “On the other hand, they are air and light, forming the volumes from empty space.”
Eva is currently producing large sculptures for public placements in Sweden, Norway and China in collaboration with small industries and foundries. “At the moment I am exploring new materials like stainless steel and fiberglass,” she says. “My sculptures have spatial and architectural qualities, and the open volumes interact with the surrounding environment and are possible to explore with the whole body.”
To see more of Eva’s art, visit evahild.com and follow her on Instagram: @evahildart and Facebook: @EvaHild.
