Jaana Sundström – Den här gången ska jag (be)hålla mig för mig själv

Exhibition

Jaana Sundström
Den här gången ska jag (be)hålla mig för mig själv
15–17 November 2019
Stockholm, Sweden

Vernissage: Friday 15 November, 17–22
Artist talk: Saturday 16 November, 16–17 (in Swedish)
Opening hours: Saturday – Sunday, 12–18

Address
Lördagsvägen 39, 12360 Farsta, Stockholm, Sweden
Door code: 1278 + OK (valid until 19.00, then call Franziska on + 46 72 010 91 89)
Tunnelbana: Hökarängen
Bus stop: Söndagsvägen
Contact phone: +46 72 010 91 89 (Franziska)

Refreshments will be available for purchase. Swish only.

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When we decided to treat ordinary apartments as our main exhibition venues, I could not imagine how well they would work for exhibiting artworks. Not only does the concept provide a special freedom of treating a space, but also, through the specific surroundings, the art pieces gain new layers of meaning and insight into the rooms that we usually inhabit.

I first became interested in Jaana Sundströms work because of the unconventional surfaces that she uses for printing and transferring photographs. –We recognise a range of everyday objects from our homes: plates and clothes; a blanket, a mirror, or a photo album. We see them merge into the exhibition space of the apartment as they become a part of someone else’s home, at first sight difficult to differentiate from the permanent interior.

The black and white, partially coloured photographs are printed, pressed or sewed onto the common objects. They show various motives, such as sceneries from nature, houses or a detail of a gown, often in a zoomed in perspective, and not covering up flaws or damages. The artist directs the gaze and forces the viewer to look closely at a certain focus point, never giving the whole picture. The narrowed scope imposes upon someone else’s private sphere; coming too close and challenging our feelings of discomfort.

The photographs, as well as the objects themselves, tell stories of women who are simultaneously present and invisible. The defects and repetitions of the photographs and their motives reflect on incomplete stories and partial memories, reminding us of the fact that we never see the whole picture when we try to understand other people’s experiences.

The poetic language of the artworks’ titles opens a window to stories we might tell about ourselves or about other people. They refer to fictional and non-fictional literature, or are invented by the artist, resulting from observation and examination of Sundström’s and other women’s lives, experiences and thoughts. In the titles we are confronted with an ‘I’ (‘Jag’, in Swedish), a transforming subject, which demands self-reflection, but at the same time is an invitation to become intimate with oneself. We wonder what the dominant part of the artwork is – the image and the object, or rather the language and the title. Both the object and the language help to visualise each other.

By intruding into the private sphere of someone else and looking at the artworks, the viewer’s privacy is also examined and intertwined with the artworks’ transforming subject, the repetitive and anonymous ‘I’. When reading the titles or looking at the artworks, how do you reflect on yourself and your surroundings and how does your self-perception change?

Franziska Sperling, curator

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Biography

Jaana Sundström (b. 1992, Jomala, Åland) is an artist and photographer. She works with photography on different surfaces, often everyday objects, and prints the photographs in a manner similar to how temporary tattoos are transferred on the skin. Fictional and non-fictional feminist texts by Nordic and French writers are a constant source of inspiration and appear in each of the artworks’ titles.
Jaana Sundström has studied fine arts, photography and experimental film as well as Gender Studies in Sigtuna folkhögskola, Animationsakademin and Grafikskolan in Sigtuna and Stockholm. Since 2019 she attends a BFA programme in Photography at Valand Academy in Gothenburg. Sundström has exhibited at Galleri Axel (2017) and Studio 44 (2016) in Stockholm. Her exhibition “Denna gång ska jag (be)hålla mig för mig själv” with Flat Octopus is her first solo exhibition.

Instagram: @jaanabsundstrom

Header image: Jaana Sundström, Kruthålen igenom mors garderob fyllde skogen med lavendel och kortison, Fototryck på tyg, latex, tråd.

 

Flat Octopus is supported by Nordisk Kulturfond.
www.flatoctopus.com