Matias Faldbakken

Matias Faldbakken, born in 1973, first became known as a writer, thanks to his 2001 novel The Cocka Hola Company, which inaugurated the »Scandinavian Misanthropy« trilogy. The open social critique in his writing is counterbalanced by the deliberate hermeticism of his art, in which found materials are worked into what the artist calls »negativistic gestures« in versions of sculpture, readymade, and painting. His works often use materials from construction or logistics, as in a recent series of flattened and framed cardboard boxes. The »aesthetic products« in his exhibitions are, Faldbakken has said, »the side effects of an artistic strategy that engages readily available possibilities of disengagement«.Here he selects five artists and writers whose work he admires.