Untitled (Berlin)
2006, wall drawings in black lacker paint, 130cm x 130cm/90cm x 60cm, Konstfack and Umeå University’s studio/Berlin
I made this piece in the residency flat of Konstfack and Umeå University in Berlin. It consisted of two black wall drawings: a text message from my mother and a silhouette of an old clipper ship. In Berlin I thought about real and imaginary travelling, distance and displacement, nostalgia and communication. Travelling as communication, but also the communication traveller’s have with themselves or people far away. My work also came to circle around the interpretation act between sender and receiver. Further I was interested in how images and texts are reproduced and recycled, how their value changes due to context and time. For example an oil painting of a ship, originally considered a very exclusive piece of art, becomes every man’s property after the development of the reproductive technologies. The image changes, or at least what we see changes - the image is just a container of values. Suddenly the same motive has become kitsch (the word originates from Yiddish and refers to an inferior piece of art or artistic handicraft), and the lowest form of decoration. Later it is reconsidered by a new nostalgic and recycling generation, and perhaps looked upon as a piece of interesting popular culture (will my wall drawing transform the motif into exclusive fine art again?). Archiving or ”cementing” ephemeral communication, such as text messages which will most likely be lost with time, interests me along with the new forms of language, funny mistakes and multiple readings that this compressed form of communication can give rise to.
