Timja Femling (b. 1983) grew up in Krokstrand by the Iddefjord, on the Swedish west coast. She is now living and working in Malmoe, Sweden, with her studio located at CirkulationsCentralen.
For me color is crucial. There was a time when I didn’t feel comfortable using color, but that time has past and now color equals where my inspiration begins.
To find the absolute breaking point. What you can manage to squeeze into a limited area and where the vibrating meeting between equally strong colors become almost physically tangible. Patterns, shapes, and colors communicating nothing and everything. The most important thing always, is for me to feel passionately for what I do. To be able to flee into my own world and there be fully absorbed by that which is not the reality.
I’ve always been interested in that which is not obviously appealing to the eye, I often find the disturbing very amusing. Like the blotchy appearance of a hawaii shirt, or maybe the meeting between signal red and grass green. Forms and shapes in nature have also been a great source of inspiration, not always in the way it actually appears maybe more in the way you imagine or dream of it, like the illusion of a paradise out of reach.
News
2014 I Play Color Wild, solo exhibition, Candyland, Stockholm/Sweden
2014 Artist in Residence, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing/China
2014 Helge Ax:son Johnsons stiftelse, Travel Grant
2014 The Department of Cultural Grants the City of Malmoe
2013 The City of Malmoe, Studio Grant
2013 Gislaveds konsthall, Gislaved/Sweden
2012 CC Winter Special, CirkulationsCentralen, Malmoe/Sweden
2012 Limited ECHOES, Studio 44, Stockholm/Sweden
2011 Konst åt alla, Tryckeriet, Malmoe/Sweden
2011 Höstsalongen, Skånes konstförening, Malmoe/Sweden
2011 CC Sommarupplaga, CirkulationsCentralen, Malmoe/Sweden
2009 On the Wall, CirkulationsCentralen, Malmoe/Sweden
2009 Tunnel Vision, Dunk, Copenhagen/Denmark
2011 Text, Papi, literary magazine
2010 Text, S:t Största skarabéerboken by Stefan Hammarén, H:ström text och kultur
2008 Novel, Desynkroniseringens Amalgam, H:ström text och kultur
2012 Flickan och havssköldpaddan, props for scenography, Teater Albatross, Tokalynga/Sweden (Awarded Best Set Design at the Smolensk Theatre Biennial in Russia 2014)
2009 Beyond the Sea, scenography, Theatre du Chocolat, Yaoundé/Cameroon
2009 Kongo, scenography/sculpture, Teater Albatross, Toklaynga/Sweden
I mostly work on paper. I like using different types of techniques to create depth and satiation to the drawing. I work with the drawings as in layers, and I often let the different layers shine through eachother, in that way I find that the colors and lines become more vibrant.
I like the sense you get when you can feel that the paper has been worked with more than once. The material becomes a bit rough, the smoothness disappeares and the paper stands out almost as an object in it self.
