Fredrik Raddum
Kistefos Museum and Sculpture Park is located at Jevnaker outside of Oslo and is founded by art enthusiast and devoted collector Christen Sveaas. Kistefos was originally established as a pulp mill in 1889 by Christen Sveaas grandfather Consul Anders Sveaas (1840-1917), which stayed active until 1955. In 1999 Kistefos opened its sculpture park, mainly directed towards Norwegian contemporary art. The collection took an international turn in 2003, with adding sculptures by artists Fernando Botero, Tony Cragg and later Anish Kapoor, Marc Quinn and John Gerrard amongst others.
In 2013, Fredrik Raddum was chosen as the yearly solo exhibitor at the Kistefos Museum. The same year he completed a site specific sculpture for the park. The sculpture Teddy - Beast and the Hedonic Treadmill is placed in the sculpture park like a mascot that welcomes the audience as a giant cuddly teddy bear. However as the spectator moves around the teddy bear, one can see that it has demanded its victim; a couple of naked human legs are crushed and suffocated under the bears enormous weight.
The sculpture's title Teddy - Beast of the Hedonic Treadmill further reveals that it was not only the artist’s intention to create a fun loving toy. The world is filled with teddy bears in different sizes and designs: a mass-produced object, which we automatically buy home with us. With his sculpture, Raddum expresses how our belongings are overpowering us into self-destruction. The teddy bear works as a symbol of the modern human consumption, and how objects are mass-produced in an increasing unsustainable industry.