Why make sculpture?
Elisabeth Tronhjem

These few words try to express what is important in terms of the basis and driving force behind my work:

My fascination for the splendid panorama of the bay, which embraces the sea, the sky and the port of Palma, and which I have been able to enjoy from the terrace of my house / studio, has imbued my inspiration with greater strength, thus allowing me a better understanding of the true essence of the soul of Palma de Mallorca, through the filter of all my personal life experiences.

To be of this world. The feeling of the eternity of nature and of living beings, whose existence alternates within nature itself. I try to administer my strength, trying out thoughts and experiences, that I have, in relation to nature and creatures, externalising this through my work, thus getting closer to extracting a humanly universal expression, in a direct, immediate and expressive form.

They are experiences and feelings trapped in an instant and taken out of life’s flow, in which all is in perpetual motion: all is temporary and mutated; impossible to hold back.
My sculptures attempt to manifest the current, the pulse of an eternally contingent life, full of difficulties and contrasts; the complex range of knowledge, stimuli and events that leave their mark, the dialogues, in other words, the paradox of life. Recognising the reality of this eternal mutation and the precariousness of existence means respecting all creatures, understanding their uniqueness and unrepeatable nature, in a type of “Carpe Diem”, that is almost mystical. The artistic search is difficult because, in my case; form, in other words sculpture, must come from within me; nothing happens in an anticipated way and “repetition” makes no sense. There are times when there is little to give, but even these times of apparent emptiness are fertile, because in emptiness one discovers the importance of another human being; one experiences a state of empathy and exchange, a deep enthusiasm for life and the desire to live in gratitude for the fragile miracle of existing open to the world. From here springs energy, the inspiration from which the basis of my work is extracted. It is fantastic when the sculpture begins to “open up” in my hands – here lies my happiness, that which gives meaning, strength and value to my life. For me, work is a process of searching and clarification: sculpture is born from the fury of the desire to find expression in answer to doubt, and of the contrasts and paradoxes that life involves. Converting these contradictions and the incompatibility of life, uniting them in my sculptures, I make, as a human being, a step forward. In my dialogue with the material I use (marble, plaster, wood, iron and at the moment marès the most ductile type of sandstone and the stone of Santanyí, which I am lucky to be able to sculpt, a familiarisation process begins, a process of inner growth that is based on intuition, elucidation, continuous progression and the adaptation of expressive media to an inexplicable reality. The driving force enabling advancement at work is born from the contrast between the progressive impetus, on one hand, and anxiety and doubt, as a brake, on the other. The alphabet of life. Reality and theatre: The entity within which circulates the projection of fantasy, the sublimation of the idea, the substance of perception, the determination of the concept, the idea-force of beauty, the categories and stimulants of thought. The tension toward the absolute.