Ulrika Sparre at Handels

The exhibition brought together eight works by Ulrika Sparre across text, light, film, and sculpture. At its centre was the 12-metre text-based work ON A CLEAR DAY I CAN SEE FOREVER (2015–2024), installed on the balcony of SSE’s main building.

Sparre’s work draws attention to the mystery of existence. The phrase on the balcony moves between poetry and existential uncertainty, inviting viewers to consider whether it is a maxim, a mantra, or a statement about taking a longer perspective.

Other works included the lightbox As I reach up I will eventually reach the horizon (2012), the film Ear to the Ground (Golden Monolith & Black Monolith) (2024), the sculptures In the future when all mysteries are solved (2018) and The entire universe is created by me (2018), and five Antennstenar (“Antenna Stones”) from 2017.

In Ear to the Ground, Sparre seeks contact with a stone in the Bregaglia Valley through Wisława Szymborska’s poem Conversations with a Stone. The film was shown in Sweden for the first time as part of this exhibition.

Ulrika Sparre was born in Stockholm in 1974 and studied at Konstfack in Stockholm and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.

Her multidisciplinary practice encompassed installation, sculpture, photography, film, performance, and sound. She explored meaning-making, secular belief, identity, and humanity’s relationship with nature, often using language and symbolic objects in public space to invite reflection on existential questions.

Her work was presented at Färgfabriken, Reykjavik Art Museum, Artipelag, and Index Foundation, among others. She also created numerous projects for public space and received the Becker Art Award in 2008 and the Stockholm City Cultural Award in 2012.