Christina Sporrong is an artist and metal sculptor recently based out of Lund, Sweden. Her roots are global, but she calls Taos and Sweden her homes.

She lived in the high mountain desert of Taos, NM, most of her life where she established Spitfire Forge, a commercial blacksmithing and fabrication shop in 1996. She has been teaching national and local welding and blacksmithing workshops as a means to empower women and to de-mystify the process of working with metal. She also been teaching welding classes through the University of New Mexico and at Vista Grande Charter School in Taos.

Sporrong’s work often contains an intersection of performance, sound, form and interactivity. A few highlights of these merging disciplines are Amortec, a disjointed romantic dance between a robot and a woman on stilts;   The Heron Project, a kinetic sculpture that acts as an aerial performance playground; and Caged Pulse Jets, a fiery cacophonous sound sculpture that the audience can play like an instrument.

With the installation Mitt Uthus Sporrong investigates the way that current collective human experience is condensed through memes. The audience is invited to sit, explore and meditate in solitude, inside a tiny red outhouse with hundreds of memes as well as phone screens covering the interior walls. With this exploration into socio-political themes and viral media she is uncovering the humor and power wielded by these familiar cultural sound bites.

Her largest sculpture to date, is the Flybrary, a 40-foot tall steel head with book-like birds flying out from the top. The stylized planar head is looking upwards its eyes following the flock of aluminium book- birds with a contemplative stare. While it was installed at Burning Man, the interior of the head functioned as a fantastical multi-level library, filled with books, reading nooks, neuron inspired chandeliers, all of which created an inspiring space to allow your ideas to take flight. The Flybrary was exhibited at the Chatsworth House gardens in 2022 as part of the Radical Horizons Exhibit. It is now living in Portugal and will become part of a public sculpture park in the near future.

Sporrong spends a good part of the year traveling with her sculptures and is currently homesteading in Southern Sweden.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I am a process-oriented artist and seek to understand the world around me through my work.

I am inspired by science, the natural environment and our tenuous relationship with it, as well as the technological footprint advancing on our planet. There is an acute incompatibility between human advancement and our connection to nature.  I continue to search for the root of the initial deviation.

Currently I am fascinated by borders. Mainly, man-made borders that divide one from another, borders as arbitrary markings on landscapes, that continue to change yet have such impact on human migration.

As a kinesthetic learner I have to delve deeply into the components of whatever medium I choose to express myself with. I use metal, fire, movement, sound and scale to provoke a reaction or an interaction.

Words that sum up the intentions of my work include relevance, reaction, curiosity and awe.

FEATURED PUBLICATIONS
Taos News Tempo cover October 2021
Taos News Tempo cover January 2019
Taos News “Tradiciones” Special Edition, October 2016
Taos News, Tempo section, September 2016
New Mexico Magazine, November 2015 issue
Around 505 Magazine, December issue
THE Magazine, Santa Fe November issue
Times Picayune NOLA October 2014
Taos Gallery Guide 2014
Taos News Tempo Section for  The Paseo   September 2014
Remarkable Women of Taos, Taos.org
The Taos News The Year in Review January 2012
El Paso Times, October 2010
The Taos News, Tempo, October 2010
Santa Fe New Mexican, August 2010
The Taos News, August 2009
Artisode 1.10 by Erin Hudson for KNME/PBS TV
From Fire to Form, Mathew S. Clarke
The Taos News, April 2009
Santa Fe New Mexican, August 2009
Journal Santa Fe, August 2009
Albuquerque Journal, August 2009
The Taos News, Tempo August 2008
The Taos News, Tempo November 2007
The Anvils Ring, Summer 2006
The Durango Herald, “Arts and Entertainment” 2005
Hammers Blow, Fall 2005
The Anvils Ring, Summer 2004 issue
Pounders Press, May 2004
Welding Journal, November 2003 issue
The Taos News, June 2001
Alternatives Magazine, Winter 2001 issue #16
The Taos News, Tempo May 2000