The title of Hála’s and Rohden’s duo exhibition STRETCHES refers to a technique of forging, a key element and common ground in both of the blacksmiths’ works. Their collaboration started during a residency in the blacksmith workshop Not Quite (SWE) as they transformed railway tracks into delicate line drawings.
Stretching is an ability to push material boundaries: solid chunks of steel transform into lines in space, which then can be bent, twisted and tensioned in endless ways. The profile and mass of the railway tracks offers specific possibilities for manipulation and forging. The final form is not determined but emerges through a play with gravity, mass and tension. The works emphasize the contrasts found in the material between massiveness and delicateness, strength and vulnerability, rigidity and precarity.
Besides collaborative pieces, both of them also present individual works. In his work Rohden plays with scales presenting brooches inspired by safety pins, accompanied by much larger works made in similar style and techniques. By using a hand driven rolling mill to make steel wire he can create playful, sometimes absurd works that question the integration and strength of steel readymades.
Štěpán’s “Objects of Grain” are an exploration of the material qualities of wood and steel. Regarding his personal work he states: “Just as age rings reveal the tree’s past, wrought iron has also its history embedded into its structure. It has been reshaped and repurposed adapting to its new roles when the original purpose reached an end, embedding the stories into its layers.”
Štěpán Hála (2003) is an artist and metalworker from Czechia where he first studied artistic blacksmithing and learned the foundations of the craft. Later he continued his studies in the Metal Art Department at the University of Gothenburg. Through his practice, he has developed his own style and approach to working with the steel. His work is characterized by clean forms and a fascination with the material’s inherent properties.
Christoph von Rohden (1998) is a material-based artist mostly working in steel. Already at the age of twelve he started to forge and make tools. During a three-year apprenticeship as artist blacksmith in Germany he created architectural metalwork and worked with the restoration of historic ironwork. In 2024 he received a bachelor degree in Metal Art at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden). After an Erasmus traineeship at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2025 he returned to Sweden to study the Master program in Metal Art at Campus Steneby (University of Gothenburg), where he is currently based.
Exhibitions in A-Galerii are supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment
