Maria-Thérèse Sommar, fotograf, frilansskribent och författare. Ej körkortsfoto!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Heey I'm in the paper! Article, photos, interview from the new exhibition Artikel, bilder, intervju från nya utställningen!

Maria-Thérèse Andersson

This is about my new exhibition with Nathalie Fougeras and also to answer your questions about ghosts. Luxury problem: The article was too big to scan so I took some photos. Original text and photos by magnificent writer Katarina Östholm. Please scroll down for my English translation. Left-click to enlarge photos.
Detta handlar om min nya utställning med Nathalie Fougeras och svarar samtidigt på era frågor om spöken. Lyxproblem: Artikeln var för stor för att scanna in så jag har fotograferat av den. Text och bild av den fantastiska Katarina Östholm. Vänsterklicka på bilderna för att se dem större; då bör texten i nästa bild vara läsbar på alla skärmar, hoppas jag.

vänsterklicka på bilden för att förstora
 

Traces of ghosts and burning angels

Ghosts eat rocks. Ghosts make buildings crumble; ghosts move in bubbly window glass, cast shadows where there is no light and resound through body and mind. Nathalie Fougeras and Maria-Thérèse Andersson have found the ghosts at Knivskärargränd, Sollefteå.

"Tear My Walls Down" is the title of the new exhibition at LAB Gallery, Sollefteå. The large stone building which contains the gallery is the centre of attention; a 19th century building with echoing staircases and dusty attics, locked doors and worn walls where the years have drifted to the floor.

Nathalie Fougeras and Maria-Thérèse Andersson have been on an explore with a shaky handheld camera, resulting in a strongly intuitive short film where the artists themselves are two of the many shadow-like appearances leaving their imprints in and around the building.

- It's about the physical walls of the building and the history of the house; what the building contains and what used to be here, says Maria-Thérèse Andersson.

- The house is a kind of body, as a shape, and also has an internal life, a mind and a consciousness. In the film we wanted to document the place itself, the building and the process, but we also turned into ghosts ourselves.

The body of the house and the human body converge. A series of photographs - some form collages, others are series or displayed as singular objects - show blurry figures, dressed in black, in violent, almost destructive movement. Other images are more ethereal with bright, transparent dream faces multiplied in obscure foliage, a woman caught in liquid, cool fire.

The images continually border the abstract. In some cases, the motion blur is so powerful that the original object is transformed into something completely different - a burning white angel, a hunchbacked shadow resembling a black ink Rorschach stain.

Many doors are opened by this exhibition; a metaphysical journey, if you like, where the sounding board is the spectator's own references. If what you see is an existential mystery, it is handed to you on a silver platter. If you see a flirt with the past or a trauma buried deep in time, this works equally well. Or perhaps you just want to look at the aesthetics, the way the lines play, the tension between what is clearly formulated and what is hidden in thought.

- I like the tension which is created, between the concrete and the abstract. When movement itself becomes an abstraction, Nathalie Fougeras says.

- My photos may be about strong emotions, bordering madness, and a longing to be free. But - other people will see different things.

LAB Gallery rarely serves art which is easily accessible, and so this exhibition is far from one which simply wants to please an audience. A person who looks only to the obvious will dismiss it immediately. But for the person who enjoys it when the windings of the brain are further creased, this exhibition is mentally yummy.

Tidningen Ångermanland, 27 January 2011
Interview and photos by Katarina Östholm
translated by Maria-Thérèse Andersson

Maria-Thérèse Andersson and Nathalie Fougeras, LAB Gallery


Maria-Thérèse Andersson, Nathalie Fougeras
Share:
© Copyright © Maria-Thérèse Sommar unless otherwise noted.
Blogger Template by pipdig