Coulisse Gallery is proud to present ‘Like Me’, Sara Sjöbäck’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, presenting five new sculptural works. The exhibition takes its point of departure from the phrase ‘Like Me’ and its dual use and interpretation. ‘Like Me’ is an exploration of heritage and identity, Volvo car parts disassembled and destroyed, carefully put back together again in a process that both questions and celebrates our shared experiences through materiality. For Sara, a scrapyard is a place that holds collective histories and memories, and she carefully sources pieces that she can use to sculpt. Through a process of destruction, the pieces are brutally beaten, hammered and folded, a physical undertaking that is both cathartic and exhausting. This is followed by a series of repairs; pieces are screwed together, varnished and neon lights are added, creating objects that are visually charged and carry a resilient glow. Sara’s methodology uses destruction and repair as both a physical and metaphorical representation of our relationships with others and our surroundings. Sara Sjöbäck (b. Sweden, 1988) is an artist who lives and works between Malmö and Stockholm. She attended the MFA program at the Royal College of Art, London in 2019. Hailing from a small industrial town in southern Sweden, Sjöbäck’s work interrogates industrial materials’ functionality and emotional charge. Learning to use mechanical tools from an early age through her father’s mechanical shop, Sjöbäck took these processes and techniques and made them her own. She finds distinctive forms of expression and narration and creates new stories with metal, glass, and neon while exploring themes of gender, origin, heritage, and culture. The materials are broken, folded, and mended in a physically exhaustive and labor-intensive process, finally taking on a new shape and meaning. Sjöbäcks process often begins on a small scale with personal anecdotes and experiences, resulting in large installations and works commissioned for public spaces around Sweden.