The Composition
Åbo Konstmuseum, Turku, Finland 2025
Silicone sculptures
Roland Persson is known for his captivating silicone sculptures, which he casts in molds of real objects. The combination of colored silicone mass and casting is at once sculptural and painterly, and makes the details of the work strikingly illusory. The deep knowledge and complete mastery of the technique are the result of decades of collaboration with the chosen material. Persson's work explores the intersection between man and nature, the conscious and the subconscious, and the private and the public. In recent years, his imagery has focused on plants and animals, where nature takes on an allegorical role as a reflective surface of the unconscious. The surreal and enigmatic character of Persson's work is partly explained by his interest in dreams and psychoanalysis. The symbolically charged works often contain a deliberate imperfection, damage and undefined melancholy that makes the viewer feel compassion for them. The sculptures are often accompanied by various supports, bandages, prostheses and blankets, which can be seen as a reference to our clumsy attempts to repair trauma or signs of the passage of time.
The Composition is a brutally beautiful and poignant collection of new works from this year that speaks to the fragility and vulnerability of life amidst the uncertainty that surrounds us. The world they create balances between death, transience, care and concern and, like a vanitas, opens up to different interpretations of the fundamental questions of our existence. While the music has fallen silent, someone has placed a lace tablecloth on the table and given a walnut twig some water.
Text: Turku Art Museum
Photo: Jari Laurén, Sofia Olander
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