Johanna Sandels

Q. You work primarily as a sculptor and installation artist; how do physical and sound art overlap for you?

A. For me, sculpting allows me to explore language in a state of continuous construction and deconstruction, where the materials are left as frozen traces of a language lost to be activated by the spectator. I find that sounds overlap with the physical aspects of my sculpting through their momentarily textural existence and resonance with the space and material around them—an invisible sculpture.

Q. Could you tell us about a place in the world that substantially affected your work?

A. It is difficult and perhaps impossible for me to pinpoint a single place. Maybe Kolmården, Sweden, and being close to the movement of the sea and hearing stories of Tintomara.

London, for the people I have met and who shared with me the ideas of Pauline Oliveros.

Buenos Aires, where I did an internship with Fundacion Grupo Pererya, an organization that works with nature and art using, leaving me with questions about how to change our relationship with nature through a visual/sonic language.

I spent a year at Bagnoli Sur Ceze, run by Helena Schmidt and Alain Bourges, in the south of France. There I created Konstkollektivet Kontakt and took part in my first sound workshop.

The Cave of Dreams near Ardeche, reading a language that was, at that point, so foreign to me.

The sea around Sicily greatly impacted me, being constantly in movement and learning how words don’t have the resonance to understand the changing ways of nature.

Q. What does a perfect day look like to you?

A. Coffee, nature walk, swim, long dinner with loved ones, nice sounds, and dancing.