Cross is the first original work I created for Backa Teater’s 2026 to 2027 season. Made for the world premiere of Björn Elgerd’s play Cross, directed by Lars Melin, the work is a digital illustration created for the season opening. The image shows a body lifting and holding a cross motorbike within a Gothic arch structure. The motorbike is suspended rather than in motion, shifting the focus from speed to weight, strain, and the direct physical relationship between machine and flesh.

For this project, I wanted to bring a deeply manual way of drawing into a digital form without losing its intensity. Translating that language into a digital image became both a technical and artistic challenge. It demanded a different kind of precision, patience, and endurance, and resulted in one of the most time-consuming drawings I have made.

The work grew out of my interest in how repeated lines can build tension, density, and emotional weight. Rather than treating drawing only as a visual style, I approached it as a way of constructing the image itself, allowing labour, time, and surface to become part of its meaning.

The architectural frame draws from Gothic and Renaissance image traditions that historically shaped how bodies were elevated, judged, and made monumental. Against this structure, the landscape, inspired by the Swedish countryside, introduces a spatial calm that contrasts with the strain of the figure.