Swedish artist Tina Eskilsson makes her U.S. debut in a pleasant whisper of a show at Sixteen:One. Watercolors of polar bears sniffing and walking the icy ground are lovely enough, the bulky grace of the creatures defined by shadows of green and fuchsia. A sequence of small ink paintings of a pale grey bear making its way “Seventy Miles a Day” through blank white space has a gentle appeal as well. But the main event of Eskilsson’s show is her installation “Ice Light and Shadows.”
In a dedicated space, she has suspended five conical icicles over clear Plexiglas boxes and trained a halogen lamp on each pairing. The setup is reminiscent of early sculptural / sound work by Mineko Grimmer. As Grimmer’s suspended chunks of ice melted, they shed pebbles onto piano strings, each sculpture performing a chance-driven score a la John Cage.
Eskilsson’s installation is simpler, more slight. Its interest comes from the object’s shifting states: solid becoming liquid, clear elements casting dense shadows. As the icicles melt, their drops reverberate in the troughs and send quivering, patterned shadows onto the walls and ceiling. Time, gravity and temperature grow more pronounced. With its single chair, the installation feels like a meditation chamber, where one can contemplate the aqueous equivalent of an hourglass.

By: Leah Ollman


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