About
Since taking my Master’s degree at the School of Photography at Göteborg University in 2006, I have dealt with the utopian picture of humanity portrayed in cinema. My art contrasts the idealized but unrealistic pictures of fictional reality with our own ideas of reality, norms and identities.
The series Escape to reality (2010) is about the parts we play as a result of our culture, our bringing up and the influence of media on our lives. The pictures consist of an artificial reality filled with symbolism and stereotypical images. They focus on how we, with the help of persistent intent, can break ingrained routines and patterns.
In the Falling down series (2008), proceeding from the glorification of violence in films, the heroes take responsibility for their actions. The classic picture of Good Guys is collated with that of Bad Guys at the very moment of death.
The saviour (2008) is a video, which throws light upon the comic effect produced when a fictional action hero does his thing in typical film scenes. Artificial and exaggerated threats are larger-than-life elements in the background of the film.
The series Before the storm (2007) and Too good to be true (2007) are based on action films and thrillers. On the surface everything is perfect, but there is cause for alarm. Separating layers in Before the storm highlights the details and thereby reinforces their significance. This adds continuity to the snapshot.
The video TV-tittarna (The TV Viewers, 2006) describes how a father and his two sons react while watching an action film. Their body language betrays their fear, while at the same time they are heard commenting on the film with delight mingled with terror.
The videos Play dead, Play dead 2 and Hitting tall trees (2006) examines the normative part films play in shaping our fantasies and values. Viewers are faced with the cinema’s glorified portrayals of violence. They observe the child at play in games that are direct reactions to scenes of violence, and see how the child is forced into the roles of perpetrator and victim.
The photographic work Heroes (2003) shows the female heroic image as she is portrayed in action films and the like. This work suggests that there are rarely female heroes to identify with. The characteristics ascribed to female heroes are usually based on the fact that the character is a woman rather than that she is a hero.
No names (2002) is a photographic work, which considers the classic picture of a woman who is seen by virtue of her beauty, not her wisdom. Each portrait contains a detail that emphasizes her experience.
