About Me
There’s a forest I keep returning to — one that doesn’t exist on any map, but runs through my imagination and my sculptures.
I’ve never studied folklore or mythology, and I don’t set out to reference it in my work. Yet somehow, the feeling of it drifts through what I create. Not in the form of direct stories or recognisable symbols, but as an atmosphere — something ancient, half-hidden, moving quietly beneath it all.
Again and again, I return to the forest. Maybe it’s because I grew up surrounded by Scandinavian nature, or maybe it’s simply the landscape where my imagination belongs. In that forest, the beings that shape my sculptures take form. Some are drawn from reality, others are made up. None are evil, though some may appear unsettling, strange, or intense. Each carries its own character: some hold urgency, like the inner voices that press too hard; others bring lightness or clarity; and some are still learning how to break free.
My sculptures give shape to these creatures, shadows, and signs. They are metaphors for my journey — fragments of an inner landscape turned outward, shaped into something others can step into.
I make them from cardboard and paper, materials that once belonged to nature. For me, this connection is essential. These fibres carry memory, and when reshaped, they carry transformation. It’s as if the forest grows through them again, filled with the creatures and moments of a life still unfolding.
They move through different corners of the forest, along the shifting paths I walk. Those paths hold the questions I return to again and again: am I being spontaneous, or am I holding on too tightly? Is the imposter close behind? Do I feel free, even for a moment? And what about the expectations I think others place on me — the ones I’ve created for myself?
The people-pleaser is the shadow I know best. Even while I’ve lived and worked on my own terms, she has always followed me, whispering about judgement, about how others might see me. At times I think she’s the one who made me lose my way in the forest.
– Caroline Lindqvist
Swedish artist based in London
