MUNTHE ART MONDAY: MARTHA HVIID

Introduce yourself and tell us what you do.

My name is Martha Hviid, and I am a visual artist educated at the Royal College of Art in London, the University of Texas in Austin, and the Funen Art Academy in Odense. I currently live and work in Copenhagen. When people ask what kind of visual artist I am, I usually say "sculptor," but I actually work with many different media - also sound, text, and flat things that can hang on a wall (which are somewhat like paintings). The word "sculptor" for me refers more to a mindset or approach to making art than to the specific medium. It’s a fascination with materiality, construction, and the space that arises between the work and the viewer.

Which other (female) artist inspires you and why?

That changes every day, so I’m not sure I can just mention one name and leave it at that. My inspiration almost always comes more from the way people handle tasks, challenges, and solutions than from their artistic output. I grew up with a very hard-working architect mother, who taught me a lot about running a business through her example. She showed me how broad a work life can be, how to visualize a result before it exists in finished form, and how to collaborate and project manage. When I was younger, I worked as an assistant for various artists, including Nina Saunders and Tove Storch, who each taught me about process and uncompromisingness. I am constantly moved by the generosity I am surrounded by from my female peers, some of whom I have followed from school into real careers. It inspires me to observe all those who stubbornly and persistently insist on the relevance of art in the world and who work hard for their own place in it while allowing themselves doubt, vulnerability, and curiosity to further develop.

What has been the most challenging aspect of being a female artist?

As a woman, it often feels like you have to be reminded that you are a woman all the time. When you exhibit with other women, it’s a "female exhibition," whereas no one ever calls it a "male exhibition." People have opinions about your age in relation to how far you should be in your career AND in your life—opinions about whether you should have children or not, whether you should promote yourself through your appearance and youth, or whether you are too old and should be ashamed if you let your appearance be part of your public persona. People always have so many opinions. I’m not sure male artists face this to the same extent—or if they do, it certainly doesn’t seem to stress them in the same way. I won’t start telling horror stories about things I have experienced in the art world as a direct result of being a woman, but my colleagues and I are good at sharing experiences, and I can say I’ve never met a female artist or curator who didn’t have at least a handful of stories about how they have been harassed, talked down to, or overlooked because of their gender. On both micro and macro levels. At the same time, I am very aware of my privileges as a white, Western, young, cisgender, and able-bodied woman. Intersectionality adds many complexities to this issue, and I think it’s good if we all regularly practice awareness of these mechanisms—especially in situations where it’s not us who are under fire.

Can you explain how being a woman has influenced your career?

The immediate answer is that my career is a natural extension of my life. I wish I were better at "clocking in and out," but the fact is that the two blend together, so I don't only think about my work when I'm in the studio, but also in the shower and in my dreams at night. In that way, my career is influenced by being a woman, just as my life in society is; it is always with me, along with the desire to be heard, respected, seen as an equal, seen as a professional, seen as more and other than just my gender.

What would you like people to notice in your works?

I hope people approach my work with curiosity and notice that I put effort into both the execution and the content of my pieces. I often say that I work with what it is like to be a human in the world—something that is both universal and deeply individual. Although this may sound quite concept-driven, aesthetics are also enormously important to me. I love both the beautiful, the strange, and what grates on us. Above all, visual art is a language that can provide us with nuances that the spoken or written language often fails to convey; therefore, I hope people sense my works on an immediate level and feel that they can read their own lives into them.

Martha is wearing Stormy pants.