Apparently Obscure I: Kulturcentrum, Ronneby (2013)
Digital print on linen and silk, woven intarsia.
Mimicry is a defense mechanism in nature related to camouflage. Some species scare their enemies off by mimicking more dangerous and often more visible species. This way they are protected. Corpse Paint is a face paint used in the Black Metal movement. These two phenomena was the point of departure for the project "Apparently Obscure". Is there a disparity between who I am and who I pass off as? I was interested in the word ”true” and how it’s used to separate people who are ”for real” and posers. In moving through suppressed, surfacing or uncontrolled feelings - between the obvious and the obscure, the work relates to the turbulence of forming an own identity.
During the process I started by painting myself in different kind of corpse paints, photographing the process. I projected these pictures on myself while photographing the event again. This way I could let a process which I couldn't control take me forward. When I stood in the light of the projection I couldn’t see how the image looked from an outside perspective. I moved and tried to find the projected image while the camera took a sequence of photos. In the distortion between my body and the projected images new pictures were developed. These pictures are digitally printed on transparent and nontransparent fabric. The transfer to fabric made it possible for me to continue distorting them in their physical shape. I used a technique that I call woven intarsia where I remove the weft from a certain area of the fabric. Then I use the released warp to put in a new weft. This allows me to change the structure of the fabric and picture printed on it. When the images hang layered in front of each other their transparency make them three-dimensional and as the viewer move around them their appearance change.
Mimicry is a defense mechanism in nature related to camouflage. Some species scare their enemies off by mimicking more dangerous and often more visible species. This way they are protected. Corpse Paint is a face paint used in the Black Metal movement. These two phenomena was the point of departure for the project "Apparently Obscure". Is there a disparity between who I am and who I pass off as? I was interested in the word ”true” and how it’s used to separate people who are ”for real” and posers. In moving through suppressed, surfacing or uncontrolled feelings - between the obvious and the obscure, the work relates to the turbulence of forming an own identity.
During the process I started by painting myself in different kind of corpse paints, photographing the process. I projected these pictures on myself while photographing the event again. This way I could let a process which I couldn't control take me forward. When I stood in the light of the projection I couldn’t see how the image looked from an outside perspective. I moved and tried to find the projected image while the camera took a sequence of photos. In the distortion between my body and the projected images new pictures were developed. These pictures are digitally printed on transparent and nontransparent fabric. The transfer to fabric made it possible for me to continue distorting them in their physical shape. I used a technique that I call woven intarsia where I remove the weft from a certain area of the fabric. Then I use the released warp to put in a new weft. This allows me to change the structure of the fabric and picture printed on it. When the images hang layered in front of each other their transparency make them three-dimensional and as the viewer move around them their appearance change.