Roland Persson lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. Persson is known for his public commissions and surrealist silicone sculptures that he casts on real plants and stuffed animals.
2021 Biennial Year Find out more
Working with silicone allows Persson to include colours in the material itself, instead of adding the colour by painting, making his sculptures hyper-realistic. Persson’s practice looks at our charged ideas and expectations of nature and is interested in ways of describing and understanding nature in relation to feelings, fears, politics, sexuality and death. Rather than of nature, his works can be seen as representations of being human. Recent exhibitions include KIASMA, Finland (2019); Flora Stavanger Art Museum, Norway (2019); Helsinki Contemporary, Finland (2018); and Museum für Aktuelle Kunst, Germany (2017).
Liverpool Biennial 2021
Roland Persson presented a diptych drawing and a sculptural installation at Bluecoat. Toying with the classical notion of still life within art history, Persson creates sculptures which raise questions about how society conceives and represents nature. Taking the form of an assemblage of plants, Persson’s hyper-real silicone work ‘Mouth of Medusa’ (2018) is cast from moulds made from natural objects. The silicone pieces retain the original colours of the plants they were cast from due to the porosity of the materials used – confusing the boundaries between what is natural and what is artificial. The sculpture was presented alongside Persson’s diptych drawing ‘Desire (Of a thoughtful kind)’ (2018) which resembles a botanical illustration of a leaf or a part of
Roland Persson presented a diptych drawing and a sculptural installation at Bluecoat. Toying with the classical notion of still life within art history, Persson creates sculptures which raise questions about how society conceives and represents nature. Taking the form of an assemblage of plants, Persson’s hyper-real silicone work ‘Mouth of Medusa’ (2018) is cast from moulds made from natural objects. The silicone pieces retain the original colours of the plants they were cast from due to the porosity of the materials used – confusing the boundaries between what is natural and what is artificial. The sculpture was presented alongside Persson’s diptych drawing ‘Desire (Of a thoughtful kind)’ (2018) which resembles a botanical illustration of a leaf or a part of a cactus. Emulating and documenting nature using artificial materials, Persson’s assemblage of works consider society’s charged ideas and expectations for nature. Supported by Embassy of Sweden.
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Roland Persson, Mouth of Medusa, 2018. Installation view at Bluecoat, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Ben Nuttall
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Roland Persson at Bluecoat, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Installation view. Documented: Mouth of Medusa, 2018. Desire (Of a thoughtful kind), 2018. Photography: Stuart Whipps
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Roland Persson, Mouth of Medusa, 2018. Installation view at Bluecoat, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Ben Nuttall
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Roland Persson, Desire (Of a thoughtful kind), 2018. Installation view at Bluecoat, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Ben Nuttall
