Affinity
“Affinity”
Personal exhibition (2025)
Materials:
(Environment) string lights, plants, velvet, mirrors, CD’s, hospital tubes.
(Sculptures) mannequin dolls, steel wire, plaster, clay, acrylic paint, wigs, mirrors.
Personal exhibition – a product of half a year worth of building on ideas.
This art piece is presented in a tiny closed off art-studio, which has been decorated from top to bottom with all mysterious things who doesn’t normally go together, but somehow still makes sense and found a perfect balance beside each other.
There was a specific focus throughout this piece, a focus on creating an ethereal feeling for the viewer, and mixing that with a form of eerie-ness and alien feeling.
Every wall is decorated with mirrors and CD’s, some which has been cracked, all and every angle of the environment is mirrored and is seen from new perspectives.
From top to bottom, light hangs, both on walls and ceiling. The light changes slowly and goes through all the colors of the rainbow, like the room goes through a waterfall.
Between the string lights in the ceiling hangs hospital tubes, which are all connected to each other at different points, they all connects to the plants and the beings, they connect everything and all, and lets the viewer get tangled and dive into their perfect mess of connections.
The beings are all anonymous, at least when it comes to faces, they have all been stripped of expression and voice. Though this does not mean they lack of identity and there can’t be made a connection, for something human to happen, a relation.
The viewer is pushed to interact with these beings, to squad down and mirror themselves in these beings, to see is a relation can be made, only by looking themselves in the eyes in this closed off environment.
There is given, through this environment, a form of sacred breathing room where the viewer can take a break from the outside world and only focus on this one. All those relations that can be made only in this very room.
Connections to each other, the environment, all big and small.
This art piece wants to put a focus on a very human thing, which is to create relations and being able to put one self into others shoes. To take the time to notice the details, and to feel a connection to others and the world around us.
Beings
Plants
Configuration
This piece has taken half a year to make, from February to June.
The materials are all a good mix of borrowed stuff, things from the thrift store, something I had laying around, and taken from a trashcan ready to be thrown out.
The original idea for this art piece was to have the beings talk to each other, just normal conversation like talking about a birthday or what happiness means.
This was however not part of the final piece because of time restrictions, I hope to one day be able to recreate this art work and be able to incorporate this part.
The theme of this art work – to be able to make relations and connections, and be able to put oneself in others shoes – is a very fascinating thing for me, such a human experience, which isn’t happening as often today as I’d like. I wanted to try and create a room where the viewer were forced to make a relation to these beings, something that reminded them of humans but even so, not quite, something that didn’t even have a face. No eyes to look deeply into, they would instead be met with their own, and then be able to connect to themselves.
It was interesting to hear from the people who came by and want into the room, some came out after 1 minute, others took 15 in there.
I got all kinds of comments too, some talked about how the environment felt creepy, others had noticed how the tubes all led to plants or were bound between beings, some had taken the time to listen to the environment sounds and go into a dream like state.
Do press on the YouTube link and listen to the environment sounds if you want to look through the pictures, it does a lot for the experience.
