Nathalia Edenmont, Swedish Multimedia Artist

You’re an artist here showcasing your work. Can you tell us about your art and your artistic process? 

I always use raw materials, and my photos are not digitally manipulated. It’s a large format camera scenario. When I use stones for my sculptures, they are coming from original places, like white Carrara marble or Red Jasper from South Africa. I like the real stuff, and I don’t like any manipulations. 

In this exhibition with Armory, there are eggs because I am a 55-year-old woman, and my own eggs were not good enough to create life. I had five miscarriages and was very sad for many years. Then I started to work with the eggs—I took goose eggs from real birds and cracked them with my fingers and took photos with large format cameras as you can see in these two large photos. Afterwards, I got the inspiration to make sculptures, so I went to Carrara, Italy, to the Michelangelo Cave, where he acquired the stone for Pietà and David and so, from the depths of this cave, I acquired the marble and created these three sculptures here.

How do you feel about the art scene back home versus here? 

Well, New York is always New York. New York is the best. So much life. I mean, the people here are all so beautifully and originally dressed. No one looks like anyone else. You feel a New York energy here. Back home in Sweden, it’s always calm and boring and not so much life. So I’m so happy and proud to be here. 

Tell us about your clothing choices today.

I like old Japanese clothes. I’m interested in texture. This is Issey Miyake, and this is another Japanese brand. I like different structures. 

Do you feel the way you dress is in conversation with your art? 

No, just for joy! 

What would be your advice to young emerging artists? 

My advice is to not get inspired by any other artists because it will never lead anywhere. It will only mislead you and take your time. Get inspired by your own experiences instead because even bad experiences can offer the best inspiration. If you get depressed as a young artist, it can lead to inspiration for masterpieces. So everything needs to come from inside your own experience, your own pain.

(IG: edenmont)