Growing markets,
Works for Sirin Gallery at
Enter Artfair, 2020
Emilia Bergmarks new works for Sirin Gallery that was first shown at Enter Art Fair 2020 revolves around art and money. Her sculpture ’Abstract Piggy Bank (Bull Markets), is an abstract sculpture in ceramics that also functions as a piggy bank. The piggy bank contains an undisclosed amount of the artist’s own savings in cash and as such a potential buyer can choose to smash the piece in favor of hard cash, or hope for the speculative investment that is the artwork to pay off. The works underline how an artwork that enters into the realm of the market, takes on the form of an asset and its value is dependent on the ups and downs of the markets as well as the rising or sinking status of the artist. Another work explores economic bubbles and takes inspiration from the dutch ’tulip mania’, generally considered the first recorded speculative bubble. It took place in Netherlands during the Golden Ages, the tulip became a status symbol and a luxury products and the value of rare tulip bulbs quadrupled. Bergmark’s work ’Still Life (Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds)’ lends its title from the 1841 publication by Charles Mackey that described the Tulip Folly from a perspective of crowd psychology. The work is a vase of marbled ceramic containing a floral arrangement that spells out the sentence ’Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds’ in the language of flowers – a form of cryptological communication that was popularly used in Victorian England to express feelings that could not be spoken aloud.
Abstract Piggy Bank (Bull Markets), 2020
Ceramic sculpture, H 31 cm W 15 cm
A piggy bank in ceramics which contains an undisclosed amount of the artist’s savings in cash. The buyer can access the savings by smashing the work thus shattering the speculative investment that is the artwork in favor of hard cash.
Still Life (Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds), 2020
Ceramic vase and fresh flower arrangement.
A certificate of authenticity with an original drawing by the artist, with an instruction for the flower arrangement, is included in the sale. Photography by Theo Lundgren.
Some of the works are still available for purchase at Sirin Gallery Copenhagen
Still Life Reflected (Growing Markets), 2020
A reverse painted mirror, 50 x 70 cm, depicting a reflection of a vase in ceramics containing a floral arrangement that spells out the sentence ’Growing Markets’ in the language of flowers.