Eva Hild

Name: Eva Hild

Professional title: Artist/Sculptor/Ceramist: dependent on situation!

Born year: 1966

Comes from (city/country): Borås, Sverige

Educational Programme at HDK: Ceramic Art

Other educational programmes: Art Education: Östra Grevie Folkhögskola 1 year, Gerlesborgsskolan Bohuslän

Which year did you graduate from HDK?

1998

Your graduation project from HDK attracted much attention. Did this affect you and your possibilities in getting commissions and to exhibit?

Absolutely! Attention gives more attention. This was the start of my professional life. I got offers to exhibit and through the exhibitions my works were sold to museums and institutions. If course, it’s important to be noticed in the beginning. I have also been very active when it comes to sending out pictures and presenting my work in different contexts.

What did you do, directly after leaving HDK

Me and Torsten bought a house with a studio outside of Borås. Reconstructed. Exhibited my graduation work together with the other graduation ceramic students, at different places in Sweden.  Distributed pictures and accepted most invitations of exhibiting. Gave birth to our second child.

Worked a lot in the studio; moved on from the theme in my graduation work and developed my thin, organic, sculptural forms.  One and a half year later I had my first solo exhibition in Stockholm.

What are you doing today?

Continuing my work in the studio. I see it as a slow (life long?!) process, where I examine and slowly change my forms along with my life situation. Form follows life, I would like to say.  I exhibit once or a couple of times a years; from New York and South Korea to Umeå. The last years I have made some public commissions ( for example a 150 metres concrete wall, ceramic tiles for a chapel and large metal sculptures to be placed out doors. ) and now, I’m working with more public commissions. I like the challenge to work in bigger scales and explore the possibilities in other materials.  

How did you end up there? Can you describe your way to professional life?

My way to work with art was not a straight one. I first studied to work as a physio therapist and was thinking about further studies within medicine.  But as soon as I went to an evening class in ceramics and later life-drawing I felt that THIS was what I wanted to do. I was very motivated and target oriented and started my education with big ambitions and a feeling of finally being at the right place.

Then, I’ve had to struggle with the artistic part ( finding my own expression), partly due to the facts that I came from the craft tradition and partly due to my academic background, where working full time with art wasn’t taken for granted.

It’s been really good and practical to live and work in a cheap, big house in the outskirts of a big city. Low expenses has made it possible for me to work with ceramics without having to take other jobs for my bread and butter.

Your strongest memory from HDK?

I have to say Torsten (interior architect), since we met there!  But, apart from this I remember many things: the group of friends cooking food together ( I got a cook book when leaving school…), the coffee breaks, the courses in plaster and the raku firings… med most of all how HDK changed during my time: from the dirt, dust and crowded premises when I started, moving out to Götaverken during one year (which was very tiring and very inspiring) and then back to the newly renovated and well planned house.  The places with their different qualities and new teams of teachers also influenced the education a lot.  Looking back, I see this as something very positive. So, actually, it’s the diversity I remember the most!

What is you most important lesson from HDK?

To focus on your own things in the big rush! Independence and, at the same time: being close.

Did you have some kind of strategy, during your HDK years, to influence your future carrier?

No, not more than to work a lot, to try a lot. With lust and agony as fuel, I took myself forwards. I made myself a collection of samples, experiences and drafts, which has been very helpful.

If you should give one advice to a HDK student today – what would that be?

Use the work shops, experiment a lot, take the chance to deepen your knowledge (in yourself artistically and the expressions you are exited about), try everything, even the  banal. And take some time to look around; embrace the world, make study visits a take care of your colleagues! Don’t be afraid!

Do you have a website, where interested can read and see more of what your current work?

www.2hild.com