First monograph on the Swedish artist.
Ingela Ihrman: Queen of the Night, published by Bonniers Konsthall, spans two decades of Ingela Ihrman's practice, from 2006 to 2025. Through extensive visual material from a range of performances and installation sites, the book showcases more than thirty-five of her most important artworks. New essays by curator
Chus Martínez and art historian Anette Vandsø unfold central themes in Ihrman's practice, and are accompanied by a conversation between Ihrman and editor Caroline Malmström and a preface by artistic director Joanna Nordin.
Ingela Ihrman: Queen of the Night borrows its title and graphic design (by Evelina Mohei) from one of the artist's characteristic sculptural flower costumes, made by hand using basic craft techniques and simple, familiar, found, bought, or recycled materials. Overall, the book reflects the artist's interest in the strong emotions of everyday life and a desire to understand, question, or express what it is to be alive, social, fertile, or human.
Ingela Ihrman (born 1985 in Kalmar, Sweden, lives and works in Malmö) weaves together imagination, craft techniques, as well as sensibilities and personal experiences in her objects, moving images and texts. Occasionally, her installations include an element in which she performs dressed in a self-made plant or animal costume. Drawing on the feminist performance tradition, she uses her own body to critically analyse culture-nature divisions and to open up the prevailing gazes to queer horizons. Relating one's own body to diverse material worlds or emulating their cycle of life can foster an enhanced understanding of life's various entanglements.
