In a world where art is often pursued as an escape from a machine-driven world, Anton Alvarez is doing the opposite. Join us as we step into the universe of visionary Swedish-Chilean artist with Vogue Scandinavia's latest documentary.
Wandering through Millesgården, formerly home to Swedish sculptor Carl Milles and now an idyllic cultural destination just outside of Stockholm, weird and wonderful figures are dotted throughout Milles’ own collection of antique bronzes and marbles. The eye-catching sculptures, unexpected in their shape and saturated colour, are the works of Anton Alvarez.
This surprising contrast of hand-sculpted antiquities and machine-made sculptures is at the core of Alvarez’s exhibition at Millesgården, titled ‘Honey’. Running until the end of the month, 'Honey' is a milestone for Alvarez in several ways – one of which goes without saying: to be spotlighted within the world of Sweden’s most illustrious sculptors. “They are all around in Sweden and the world, in parks, outside of the concert hall, visible in so many places,” says Alvarez of Milles’ distinctive, mythology-inspired works. “So I’m guessing that, as I grew up in Stockholm, even before I knew that I wanted to be an artist, I had probably seen these sculptures.”
Every piece in the ‘Honey’ exhibition has been created through Alvarez’s own self-made machine, named ‘The Extruder’. The crudely elegant piece of industrial equipment churns out Alvarez’s creations, symbolising his oscillating role as both artist and engineer. It’s a piece of equipment that Alvarez has worked with for many years, in many different iterations and scales, but ‘Honey’ marks the entrance of a new approach with the machinery. Working with The Battaglia Fine Art Foundry in Milan, Alvarez developed his own technique based on ancient ‘cire perdue’ (lost-wax casting) in which he presses beeswax in cold water.