Exhale, ID:I galleri, Supermarket Artfair Stockholm 2023

Our DNA is made out of the same DNA as the tree. The tree breathes what we exhale. We need what the tree exhales. So, we have a common destiny with the tree. We are all from the earth, and when the earth, water, and atmosphere are corrupted, it will create its own reaction. You should learn how to plant something. That is the first connection.

Floyd Red Crow Westerman

Transport is an ID:I exhibition at Konstnärshuset in Stockholm in 2022. The root crown’s darkness  fuels the light of the tree crown. Daylight finds its way to the underworld through the trunk. The soil is the line between root and crown and the transportation zone for life. Transport is two interconnected hand-embroideries, on one side a root crown and on the opposite side the text ”går spetsen av går roten vilse (“if the tip is broken, the root is lost”), embroidered by hand on linen, 2.5 meters high and 1.54 meters wide.

Slå rot fästa stygn (Take root fastening stitches), ID:I gallery in Stockholm 2022. The root tips of trees take root while absorbing impulses from their environment. If the roots encounter toxic substances or stones, adjustments are made in the growth zone. The root tip changes direction and the sprouts take a detour around the critical area.

The path of the thread and the movement of the root tip are metaphors that I carry with me as the stitches systematically search their way over the fabric. Each stitch is a conscious action, like the root’s ability to find its way around rocks. The stitches visualise time and space and become carriers of collective events and memories, such as the destruction of land and culture, forcing rootlessness.

Still-Leben (Still life), Galleri KC in Gothenburg 2021. 

The exhibition can be seen as a retrospective where previous works are interwoven with newly created pieces, featuring objects, hand embroidery and video. Parts of the exhibition have also been shown at Das Esszimmer Gallery in Bonn and Platform Projects in Athens.

Den lilla harens tass (The little hare’s paw), Örat mot marken (Ear to the ground) and Revor under ytan (Rips below ground), ID:I gallery, Stockholm.
A common theme of the exhibitions is issues concerning forestry and land management practices. What remains beneath a clear-felled area, under the so-called regeneration surface? A deformed ground surface of solitary and strictly aligned pine seedlings without a common root system to communicate or other tree species.

Vad är möjligt att äga (What can be owned), Röda Sten Art Hall, Gothenburg 2016.
I received an invitation to create a piece of art relating to the Anthropocene, which also had a pedagogical aspect to it. My starting point was the Swedish Species Information Centre’s red-listing of endangered animal and plant species in relation to anthropogenic “species”, such as nuclear weapons and air pollution.

The work consisted of a wall collage (9 meters long) with wall texts, pins and a large table where a photo of planet Earth covered the surface. Visitors could use post-it notes to write down their thoughts, ideas and solutions and attach them to the table – texts which later were collected for a publication.

The red-list categorises endangered plant and animal species according to the species’ condition as nationally extinct (RE), critically endangered (EN), data deficient (DD, etc. Anthropogenic “species” were categorised as Air pollution – Least concern (LC), A tip of a weapon (LC), and Atomic bomb tests (LC).

Click on the images for materials and techniques.