#599 Fungal (2026) Original Painting by Johan Söderström

Folds within folds describe the way life and language—which I see as inseparable—interact with the material world. Like a fungal infection, they colonise matter, spreading through it while being shaped and inhibited by its physical conditions.

Words and concepts are folded into one another, interacting and impossible to separate, much as organic structures form by incorporating what surrounds them. Moulded yet elastic, they hold a tension that propels them further.

Somehow, within this convulsive and chaotic movement, a closed boundary—a membrane—is upheld, and a body is maintained. A will, a direction, persists. And life—language—prevails.
Rubber Hose Drawings

In these works, I use loops of rubber hose to create imprints in moist filler. The loops are pressed into the surface of the panel and held in place by a raised edge surrounding the format.

The elasticity of the rubber introduces a tension into the forms. When I use rubber hose as a drawing tool, I see it as a metaphor for language. Language, too, is elastic. Words and images influence and distort one another depending on how they are arranged. A sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissection table mean something different together than they do in any other context.

The elasticity of language also creates tension—something that can be experienced as either beauty or discomfort. Yet we tend to assume that, after being stretched or bent, language returns to a natural or ideal state. Psychoanalytic theory might describe this belief as belonging to the Imaginary register.

We need language to be elastic because language is inseparable from life. Its resilience lies in the ability to maintain a coherent form while adjusting to the environment. Without this elasticity, both language and life would be far more vulnerable to the entropy of the world.

Materials used:

Filler (coarse and fine) in pine frame

Details:

• Painting on Panel / Board / MDF
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 128 x 168 x 5cm (framed)
• Framed and ready to hang
• Signed on the back
• Style: Organic
• Subject: Abstract and non-figurative