Ingela Ihrman

The Fertile Crescent (2024) 

The Fertile Crescent is a work that revolves around the body, grass, bread, grain and society. It all begins with the story of how what we call civilization arose in a croissant-shaped area on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in what is now the Middle East. There was once a genetic mutation that caused the grass ripe grains to stay on their ears instead of falling off. About 9,000 years ago, people saw the benefits of this and began to grow, harvest and store grains. Every now and then a series of problems and opportunities arose linked to foresight, for example taxation, permanent residence, landscape change, anxiety and bread. 

During my residency Dreams and Visions by the Sea in 2024, I draw out Halland’s own fertile crescent along the coastline of the Laholm Bay. I cycled the curved stretch on the sandy beach up towards Laxvik, bathed my feet in Knäred’s mill fall, ate flat and well-fermented bread made from cultured grain, and saw cardboard bags being filled and sealed with freshly ground flour. 90% of Halland’s economic turnover takes place on the coastal strip between highway E6 and the sea. But on the other side of the highway there is also civilization. 

At the beginning of the summer, I built a four-meter-long two-row ear of barley from compost bags, wheat starch and reeds in my studio in Stockholm. I painted it green and let the paint dry until August. Then I took my seed with me to Halmstad to, in the spirit of Gösta Ekman’s Papphammar, to document me crossing the road Nr.15 without panties carrying the ax in my arms. 

Modern grain varieties have shorter straws than the old ones, which means that the fungal spores that usually stay low to the soil take hold among the grains of the ear. Then you have to spray with fungicide. 

The grains and sprouts are green and unripe when they stand leaning against the whitewashed facade of Steninge church. We drove them to Oskarström and as the afternoon sun found its way further and further into the brick warehouse, I painted the grain ripe. The day we filmed on the beach, the rain poured down. If you harvest when it has rained, the flour will be weak because the germination enzymes have been activated. If it is sunny, the flour will be strong. It started to blow and cleared up in the evening. I draged my ax over the dunes and out to sea. 

– Ingela Ihrman 

Ingela Ihrman is active in Sweden and internationally, engaging in exhibitions, commissions, and self-initiated projects both within and beyond art spaces. Her practice encompasses performance, sculpture, video, and text, often in collaboration with others. Intense everyday emotions, the complexities and wonders of relationships, and a loving gaze directed at what we call Nature run through Ingela Ihrman’s body of work.

https://www.ingelaihrman.com/

The residency Dreams and Visions by the Sea (2024, Halmstad Municipality) explored the imprint of Surrealism on the contemporary era. What do its core ideas mean for contemporary art? What parallel realities emerge from today’s desire to challenge and transform society, conventions, and the limitations of the self?