Profile
Karin Kihlberg
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Karin Kihlberg, ‘The Poets’.
video still, produced in Beijing with the support of Arts Council England, Vivid and Shangrila Culture & Arts Centre, 2006
Karin studied BA (Hons) Fine Art from 1999-2002 at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, University of Central England. She now works in partnership with Reuben Henry, both in the residencies they offer at Springhill Institute – the studio in Birmingham that they set up in 2003 – and embarking on residencies abroad to make their own work.
Introduction
Karin studied BA (Hons) Fine Art from 1999-2002 at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, University of Central England. She now works in partnership with Reuben Henry, both in the residencies they offer at Springhill Institute – the studio in Birmingham that they set up in 2003 – and embarking on residencies abroad to make their own work. Over the past three years they have hosted seven international artists’ residencies, where the invited artists lived and worked at Springhill Institute for two weeks to produce a new project. They have attended residencies themselves in Prague, Beijing and Stockholm.
They are currently publishing a publication on Springhill Institute, which will be launched in June.
The support and creativity of her collaboration with Reuben has defined and shaped Karin’s practice: “Reuben and I started to collaborate in 2004 after spending so much time together our ideas had started to merge. We also felt that our individual skills and interests could support each other in making our work.”
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Karin Kihlberg, ‘The Waiting Room’.
video still, produced at New Art Gallery Walsall, 2006.
[enlarge]
Karin Kihlberg, ‘The Waiting Room’.
video still, produced at New Art Gallery Walsall, 2006.
Profile
Karin Kihlberg featured in a-n’s Signpost publication in 2003, having just graduated from Fine Art (BA) at University of Central England. Karin spent six months in Barcelona, which gave her the chance to focus on what to do next. On her return to Birmingham, together with her partner Reuben Henry, she wrote an application to Arts Council England for funding for a series of international residencies to take place in their studio. Four years on, the studio project is still going strong.
The international artist-in-residence programme at Springhill Institute introduces contemporary non-British artists to the region, while giving them the opportunity to create new ambitious work. In April this year they held the exhibition ‘Parallel Universes Meet at Infinity’, which presented the combined results of the residencies they have hosted, and featured Per HÜttner, Julia Montilla, Manuel Saiz, Tellervo Kalleinen & Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Peter Johansson and Barbro Westling, The Discriminating Gentlemen’s Club and Christoph Draeger. It showed as part of The Event, a series of artist-run activities in permanent and temporary spaces throughout central Birmingham.
This summer they are publishing their first book Springhill Institute report on activities with photographic documents from the residencies and commissioned texts by Simon and Tom Bloor, Manuel Saiz and an interview with Christoph Draeger. The publication will be launched on the 28 June and sold at the Ikon Gallery book shop or by contacting Springhill Institute.
Much of Karin and Reuben’s planning has been based on practicalities. For example, once they had decided that they wanted to run residencies for international artists, and conversely take part in residencies abroad, it made sense to run the residencies at Springhill in the summer and then go abroad in winter when their studio was too cold to work in. As for the collaboration itself, it was a natural progression from how they had both worked before that they felt would be mutually beneficial: “Reuben and I started to collaborate in 2004 after spending so much time together our ideas had started to merge and also we felt that we could support each other in making work by our individual skills and interests.”
Karin still keeps an eye on the opportunities that are out there, and often takes part in exhibitions that she has found in this way. However, she finds that most opportunities for exhibitions, commissions and other work come from working with people and having conversations with other artists and curators. More importantly, finding projects to get involved with in this way means less time spent in front of the computer. When they do apply for anything now they try to make sure it is right for them, and that they feel they could make a useful contribution.
For the future, Karin is working on a series of larger works and projects, and will continue to collaborate with Reuben and others in the U.K. and abroad. For the last eighteen months, they have been supported by VIVID through the ISP programme, and are currently developing a large-scale commission with them for 2008-09. They have a solo show at Castlefield Gallery in August, and one at SKOL in Montreal, Canada, in September. They are also showing work at Citric Gallery in Italy, curated by Matt Price, alongside other Birmingham-based artists and their publication on Springhill Institute will be published in June this year.
Links
Signpost: Karin Kihlberg
Profile of the artist first published in 2003.
www.karinkihlberg-reubenhenry.org
www.springhillinstitute.org
First published: a-n.co.uk June 2007
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