Thursday 28 January 2010

Artist Profile: Frida Hållander

Name / Pseudonym:
Frida Hållander


Permanent working location:
Working in Stockholm, Sweden Arvodesvägen 23, 129 33 Hägersten

Working practice:
My artistic activities mainly include video where I stage people in landscapes and photo realistic ceramics sculptures, from the concept of Vernacular. It’s a concept that describe objects and human phenomena that are not formulated in an urban establishment but have developed locally, in a subordinate position. Vernacular is often standing for the ill-mannered, rude and unformulated. In the footprints of Swedish author Ivar Lo-Johansson I examine the working-class, countryside and small town objects and social codes. My starting point is that aesthetic practice manifest different values and value concepts. In the shape of ”everyday poetry” from the countryside, that direct questions about construction of class (value hierarchy, taste hierarchy) and who has the power to speak.


Mill24 exhibition:
The proposal for the exhibit Mill24 is a video installation of four video loops in the Mills Attic. "Man in shooting tower", "Man at stone wall" and "Man at tree" is a series of works where I’ve staged a man in a landscape around artefacts and objects. The man is close to death. It’s based on an interest of mine to investigate the environment of hunting grounds and forestry workers. Thematically these actions of relating to different objects and landscape represent a repeated act of failure referring to the act of killing or working. Together with the series of "Man at…" I present the short film "Norget", where a group of connected individuals are united at a place called Norget*. The film mediates a troubling feeling which derives from the uncertainty about what has happened to the group. The group is staged as a Gustave Courbet painting A Burial at Ornas (1849). *The place Norget, where the film was shot, is located in Tranemo Municipality in Västra Götaland, Sweden. There are about 13 sites registered in Sweden with this name, and what they all have in common is that they are alone and far from settlements. The word “Norget” is an old name for a nook in the house, a room above a fireplace. The term comes from the phenomenon when Swedish people where in conflict with criminals and had to go over the border to Norway and thereby be out of reach of Swedish authorities. In the same way the corners worked in the house. When it was something you didn’t want people to see or if you wanted to hide someone, you could just go and hide it in “norget”. The requested person or thing did then become unavailable.


Mill24 exhibition Date:
Saturday 24th April 2010


Website :
http://www.fridahallander.se/


Contact email:
fridahallander@hotmail.com
+ 46 (0)706 522 126

Curriculem Vitae:
Vårsalongen 2010 // Spring Salon 2010, Liljevalchs Art Gallery, 29 Jan – 28 March, 2010 VERNACULAR, Borås Art Museum, Gallery 7, Borås, 2009 Hit My Eye, Gustavsbergs Art Gallery for Contemporary craft, Gustavsberg, 2009 Future works / exhibitions Vernacular Craft, at Konstfack University College of Art, Design and Craft, Stockholm, Sweden, -a Artist research and development program, 2010

Images:
(i) Norget, 2008 (photo Ola Abrahamsson)
(ii) Man in shooting tower, 2009 (photo Frida Hållander)
(iii) Man at stone wall, 2009 (photo Frida Hållander)