Paula Tove Alderin Swedish, b. 1971
Inferno, 2025
Printing ink, incised marks, carbon on stainless steel plate.
The artist navigates the spaces between language, matter, and the body, using materials such as ash, coal, flesh, and dust to weave the stories and memories embedded in matter into her practice.
In the series Inferno, the printing ink (trycksvärta) comes from newspaper articles collected by the artist over the years. Using acetone, words and images are etched permanently into the metal surface.
Contemporary issues or debates can be found embedded in her works in various ways, as timeless existential themes resonate with urgent events of today. More directly, materiality becomes a carrier of meaning through corporeal or flesh-like substances and through remnants of significant events preserved in newspaper articles transformed into printing ink and solvent.