The practice of Ingela Ihrman (born in Kalmar, lives and works in Malmö) moves between performance art, installations, and writing. Costumes and staged situations are recurring elements in her presentations, bringing creatures to life, i.e., giving birth or blooming. Her work is characterized by tactile craft techniques, hobbyism, and poetic absurdism, borrowing from amateur theater as well as from science. It explores limiting norms, notions like loneliness and belonging, and relations between different life forms. Since 2009, she has been part of the group Hägerstens Botaniska Trädgård, with Sam Hultin and Johan Eriksson, creating low-key performances about the strong emotions of everyday life.
Ingela Ihrman studied at Konstfack, Stockholm. Recent solo exhibitions include The Inner Ocean, der TANK, Basel (2017) and Future Flourish, Tensta Konsthall (2016). She participated Weather Report: Forecasting Futurein the Nordic Pavilion, 58th Venice Biennale (2019), The Moderna Exhibition 2018, With the future Behind us, Moderna museet, Stockholm (2018/2019) and Metamorphoses – Let Everything Happen to You, Castello di Rivoli, Torino (2018). In 2016,Ingela Ihrman did a field-based residency in the Andaman Islands, India, within the context of Art Lab Gnesta’s Swamp Storytelling. In the end of 2019 she will be Pernod Ricard Fellow at Villa Vassilieff, Paris.
