Roland Persson

Roland Persson at Bluecoat, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Installation view. Documented: Mouth of Medusa, 2018. Desire (Of a thoughtful kind), 2018. Photography: Stuart Whipps

Roland Persson, Mouth of Medusa, 2018. Installation view at Bluecoat, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Ben Nuttall

Roland Persson, Desire (Of a thoughtful kind), 2018. Installation view at Bluecoat, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Ben Nuttall

Roland Persson, Mouth of Medusa, 2018. Installation view at Bluecoat, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Ben Nuttall

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Roland Persson (b. 1963, Hudiksvall, Sweden) 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. Working with silicone allows him 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).

Project Description

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 ideasand expectations for nature.

Supported by Embassy of Sweden.

Our full exhibition programme is now closed, but visitors can still enjoy art in person at FACT and Bluecoat until August & September. Plan your visit here.