Untitled

Erick Swenson's installations create scenes of haunting perfection. Inspired by museum exhibits, set design, film special effects and model making, Swenson crafts every minute detail of his tableaux exceeding the ideals of nature. Spanning more than seven metres, Swenson's Untitled from 2004 is a paradoxical scene depicting an icy snowscape ostensibly melting. Styrofoam snow engulfs expertly moulded cobblestones, fabricating a spectacle of wintery Bavarian fairytale. In Untitled, Swenson brings together ideas of the romantic sublime with surrealism - a fallen deer made of polyurethane resin strains against death in the mound of snow in a poignant allegorical moment. With an exacting verisimilitude, the serene otherworldly tableau unfolding in Untitled chillingly confronts the viewer through Swenson's extraordinary craftsmanship. The glistening effect of the snow, the fragility and vulnerability of the buck essentially merge to create a poetic, oneiric scene.