All people have widely diverging experiences of things. It's actually quite strange. We believe that we understand one another when we communicate and we think we know what the other person is talking about. But we all have such different experiences and frames of reference. It is a miracle that we can keep the world together - but then again it does fall apart sometimes.
Annika von Hausswolff
This spring Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall has the great pleasure of showing a wide selection of work by Annika von Hausswolff, an artist whom Magasin 3 has supported for many years.
Contradictory feelings of unease and curiosity evoked by her macabre stories and glimpses of the unexpected in the everyday have been characteristic of von Hausswolff’s work since the 1990’s. In her carefully composed photographs the human body is often physically present or tangible in the traces left behind: naked, abandoned bodies in picturesque landscapes, covered, lifeless bodies, children with chainsaws, or the reminders of human presence in the form of dust bunnies, empty chairs and discarded shirts. Using well-known motifs and art historical references Annika von Hausswolff’s work exists on the border between the documentary and the staged. In the last few years her world of images has increasingly taken physical shape in the exhibition space through the use of objects and props.
Curators: David Neuman och Tessa Praun
One can discern many different themes, tracks, in Annika von Hausswolff's images; recurring motifs and subconscious currents that are at times woven together and at times not.
Annika von Hausswolff first gained public attention in the early 90's with her highly staged photographs that in their picturesque settings interrogate notions of the body, gender and existing power structures (Back to Nature, 1993). These images are almost documentary in style, with an aesthetic borrowed from photojournalism. The feminine experience is often an underlying element, with notions of 'womanhood' as both constraint (The Third Position in Between Two Worlds Where One is Called Infidelity and the Other One Decay, 2004) and masquerade (The First Position in Between Two Worlds Where One is Called Infidelity and the Other One Decay, 2004 and Untitled, 2002). Loneliness and frustration are other recurring themes (Alone by the Window, Late in the Year, 1999 and Alone in the Brown Room, 1999) imbued with feelings of melancholy, longing and sadness. Loss in the sense of absence and memory is evident in amongst others the series Spöke, 2000, and Untitled, 1999 (previously End of Story, where two chairs stand alone in a room). The bed in Where Everything Begins and Ends (1997) and the sofa in Domestic Sculpture (2002) are also devoid of life but bear the traces of recent activity without any further explanation or clues. Freud's notion of the uncanny [das Unheimliche - literally the un-homely] is visualized in scenes where the familiarity of home is suddenly disrupted and becomes uneasy and strange. The idyll is effectively broken (Girl with Chainsaw, 2002, Stihl, 2004) as disparate elements are brought together to a new, jarring whole. By focusing on individual objects like for example the radiator (Skeleton Object, 2003), the blinds (Untitled, 2003 and Forced Entry by Proxy, 2003) and the sink (Everything is Connected He, He, He, 1999) these everyday objects become estranged before the viewer and turn into abstract shapes, filled with a different, alien meaning. Annika von Hausswolff is also an artist with roots in surrealism's unpredictability. Guided by Voices (1998) and Study for Sculpture (Leaving this World Behind), 1999 are examples of suggestive works that communicate a vague feeling or atmosphere rather than a narrative or an explicit message. Here the human unconscious and dreams find physical form, and von Hausswolff believes that her works should also function as "platforms for the [viewer's] projections". At times the result is hilarious (It Takes a Long Time to Die, 2002), at times poetic (Live from the Ocean, 2005). Perhaps the frequently recurring bubbles can be seen to symbolize existential issues, like a kind of contemporary vanitas motif (Attempting to Deal with Time and Space, 1997). Sometimes the bubbles are inflated to the maximum with the thin membrane threateningly close to bursting - as it seems to have done in Woman with Necksupport (1999) - and sometimes they are obediently manageable (Untitled Bubbles, 2006).
Matter-of-fact representation, the simple and unaffected, is also one of many threads in von Hausswolff's production. The box (Untitled, 2006) can be seen as an example of this. This process-oriented thinking is also reflected in the exhibition space, where certain works are not hung on the wall but rather lie, still wrapped, on the packing table or lean against a wall.
The new work, a three-dimensional object, is a drapery behind glass (drapes are another recurring theme in Annika von Hausswolff's work - as a photograph in Now you see it, Now you don't, 1999, as a physical object in The Memory of My Mother's Underwear Transformed Into a Flameproof Drape, 2005 and as an installation The Construction of a Breakdown, 2005 at BAC). The glass, promising transparency and complete information, meets with resistance from the mutely pleated blue drapes on the one side and the thick insulation material on the other. There is a door but where it leads is unclear - just like in Alice in Wonderland. The door as subject-matter can also be found in To Carry One's Door Through the Room from 2003. The surface of the glass as such almost creates the feeling of a photograph, as if the artist works two-dimensionally even when she takes on physical space.
The titles of her pieces are often long and poetic; sometimes they provide clues to an interpretation, sometimes they are as hermetically sealed as the images themselves. This specific hanging of Ich bin die Ecke aller Räume follows neither chronology nor themes and the series have been broken up. As a result there is a new opportunity for reading the work and when explored in a non-linear way new links between works are created.
Annika von Hausswolff was born in1967 and lives and works in Gothenburg. Since the 1990's she has taken part in many solo and group exhibitions at institutions such as Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg; ARKEN Museum for Moderne Kunst, Copenhagen and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. Her work can be found in collections such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Fotomuseum Wintherthur, Switzerland as well as Huis Marseille, Amsterdam. At the 1999 Venice Biennale von Hausswolff represented Sweden at the Nordic Pavilion. At Magasin 3 she has previously been included in the group exhibitions Weegee, Jane & Louise Wilson & Annika von Hausswolff (2000), Extension (2002) and most recently Works from the Collection of Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall (2005). Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall has supported Annika von Hausswolff's career for many years and all the works shown in the exhibition are part of the Magasin 3 collection.
An artist's book will be published in the course of the exhibition including the artist's own photography of the exhibition space. The book also contains two newly produced texts, the one by the fiction writer John Ajvide Lindqvist and the other by the art historian Malin Hedlin Hayden. A so-called oeuvre section listing the entirety of Annika von Hausswolff's production will also be included.
Sara Despres
Editor of the publication "Ich bin die Ecke aller Räume" and substitute curator at Magasin 3.
WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION
All works are part of the Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall Collection unless stated otherwise
Live from the Ocean, 2005
silver gelatin
166,5 x 101 cm
Untitled, 2007
series of 8 pictures
silver gelatin
30 x 40 cm
Untitled, 2006
8 photographs
silver gelatin
in total 2400 x 180 cm
Ich bin die Ecke aller Räume, 2008
Installation
mixed media
Vart tog du vägen Nadja Comaneci?, 1999
collage on paper
29,7 x 21 cm
private collection, Sweden
Flickan, fågeln och skogen, 1999
collage on panel
42 x 34 cm
private collection, Sweden
Untitled, 1999
collage on paper
42 x 34 cm
collection of the artist
Skeleton Object, 2003
silicone mounted on plexi
120 x 150 cm
Study for Sculpture (Leaving this World Behind), 1999
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
110 x 90 cm
Still Life with Arm, 2002
silicone mounted on plexi
100 x 125 cm
Selfportrait in the Studio with Flashlight and Pulled Down Pants, 2002
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
126 x 100 cm
SPÖKE, 2000
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
3 c-prints 157 x 124 cm
2 c-prints 124 x 157 cm
Domestic Sculpture, 2002
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
90 x 180 cm
It Takes a Long Time to Die, 2002
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
152 x 120 cm
Now You See It, Now You Don't, 1999
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
110 x 140 cm
Still Life with Dead Flies, 2003
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
80 x 180 cm
Every Motion Bears Its Opposite, 2002
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
152 x 120 cm
Untitled, 2006
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
198 x 110 cm
Stilh, 2004
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
120 x 100 cm
SPÖKE, 2000
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
3 c-prints 157 x 124 cm
2 c-prints 124 x 157 cm
Alone in the Brown Room, 1999
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
140 x 110 cm
Esoteric Forensic, 2006
sculpture
fabric, chipboard, perspex, aluminium
180,5 x 90,5 x 30 cm
Esoteric Forensic, 2006
sculpture
fabric, chipboard, perspex, aluminium
180 x 90 x 29,5 cm
Untitled (Balloons), 2007
diptych
in total 160 x 100 cm
c-print, aluminium, UV-based top-coating
Everything is Connected He, He, He, 1999
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
110 x 140 cm
Alone by the Window, Late in the Year, 1999
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
110 x 90 cm
Untitled, 2006
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
140 x 175 cm
SPÖKE, 2000
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
3 c-prints 157 x 124 cm
2 c-prints 124 x 157 cm
Untitled, 2006
c-print mounted on aluminium, laminated
110 x 140 cm
Mom and Dad are Making Out, 1999
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
110 x 140 cm
Unknown Place, 2002
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
120 x 152 cm
Untitled, 2003
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
150 x 120 cm
The Petrified Couple, 1999
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
110 x 140 cm
The Third Position in Between Two Worlds Where One is Called Infidelity and the Other One
Decay, 2004
c-print silikonmonterad på plexiglas/silicone mounted on plexi
180 x 80 cm
Where Everything Begins and Ends #2, 1999
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
90 x 110 cm
Philosophical Chair, 2003
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
152 x 110 cm
Girl with Chainsaw, 2002
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
152 x 120 cm
The 21st Century Transitional Object, 2004
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
120 x 150 cm
To Carry One's Door Through the Room, 2003
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
160 x 120 cm
Untitled, 1998
c-print mounted on aluminium
90 x 70 cm
Guided by Voices, 1998
c-print mounted on aluminium
90 x 70 cm
The First Position in Between Two Worlds Where One is Called Infidelity and the Other One Decay,
2005
lambda print on aluminium
64,5 x 47,5 cm
Untitled Shirt #36, 2002
62 x 49,5 cm
lambda print
Untitled Shirt #37, 2002
62 x 49,5 cm
lambda print
Untitled Shirt #42, 2002
lambda print
Untitled Shirt #39, 2002
62 x 49,5 cm
lambda print
The Memory of Water, 2005
lambda print on aluminium
70 x 100 cm
Back to Nature, 1992
c-print mounted on paper, sketch
43 x 60,5 cm
Karaoke, 2004
lambda print
63 x 48 cm
Forced Entry by Proxy, 2004
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
120 x 100 cm
The Best Stories Are the Ones Never Told, 1999
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
140 x 110 cm
A Given Moment in the History of Coming Into Being, 2002
c-print silicone mounted on plexi
180 x 90 cm
"Untitled", 2006 |
"The Memory of Water", 2005 |
"Untitled", 2007 |
"Still Life with Arm", 2002 |
"Mom and Dad are Making Out", 1999 |
"Live From the Ocean", 2005 |
Installation image |
Installation image |
Installation image |
EXHIBITION PROGRAM
Special tour of the exhibition by Magasin 3 director David Neuman
Date: Sunday, 17 February, 2pm
Place: Gather in the lobby of Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall
Lecture by Cecilia Sjöholm (lecturer in aesthetics at Södertörns Högskola):
"Von Hausswolffs technologies; a Foucauldian approach"
Thursday, 28 February, 7pm
Place: Gather in the lobby of Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall
Towards the end of his life Michel Foucault became interested in the power he linked to 'technologies of the self'. One could say that Foucault tried to formulate the self like a moral driving force outside of the system with which the individual is coded, socially and politically. Can one analyse Annika von Hausswolff's images under this lense? Which conflicts are evident in her work? The lecture looks at von Hausswolff's images using the notions of Foucault.
Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall will be publishing an artist's book, ICH BIN DIE ECKE ALLER RÄUME, in collaboration with Annika von Hausswolff this April. The publication will include over 70 new photographs - the artist's documentation of the exhibition process, close-ups and different angles that provide a new perspective on her work. The book also contains two specially-written texts, one by horror writer John Ajvide Lindqvist and the other by the art historian Malin Hedlin Hayden. ICH BIN DIE ECKE ALLER RÄUME will also include a catalogue raisonné section of the complete oeuvre of Annika von Hausswolff, over 150 works.
AUDIO GUIDE
Duration: 9,36 minutes
Language: Swedish
© Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, 2008
Hear Annika von Hausswolf talk about her exhibition. At Magasin 3 you are also welcome to loan an audio guide for free and listen to the audio guide in the café or in the exhibition.
Play mp3 (8,8 MB)
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