Inheriting Troubles

Video, 25.50 min

In ”Inheriting troubles”, I want to explore the relationship between the documentary filmmaker (me) and the Subject (Towe). I have known Towe for 8 years and been filming her for 7. Towe is diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and ADHD. When I first met her she had given up on the outside world, fed up with the constant misunderstandings and conflicts with her surroundings, she had locked herself up in her apartment. However, through games on facebook, Towe found a new context and new community of friends from all around the world. Filtered through the screen of her laptop the world became clear, exciting and meaningful again.

Growing up with a chronic disease (Rheumatism) and myself being a gamer, I could relate to her situation. Through her story, I could see myself more clearly: a 13-year-old filtering the world through a screen as the reality of the outside was too much. Later, a 20-something aspiring documentarist, trying to make sense of the world through a lens and the screen of a camera. We have a kinship in the choice of alienating ourselves from the outside world. But in the process of making this film, I have become increasingly worried that I will exploit her precarious situation.  I have been afraid of the unavoidable, filtering her story through my own gaze and translating it to something else that she can’t relate to. Something that she is not.

Leatherboys, 2018

painted ceramic

photo by David Stjernholm

photo by David Stjernholm

photo by David Stjernholm

photo by David Stjernholm

louis.scherfig@gmail.com

Photo: David Stjernholm

Photo: David Stjernholm

Photo: David Stjernholm

Photo: David Stjernholm

Photo: David Stjernholm

Photo: David Stjernholm

Panda Politics

Ching Ching (1972 PINGWU – 1985 London)

Photo: David Stjernholm

Jennie (1937 Sichuan – 1937 SS Andre)

Photo: David Stjernholm

Ling-Ling (1970 Baoxing – 1992 Washington D.C.)

Photo: David Stjernholm

Yen Yen (1972 Sichuan – 2000 Vincennes)

Photo: David Stjernholm

Lan Lan (1969 Baoxing – 1979 TOKYO UENO)

Photo: David Stjernholm

Chi-Chi (1955 Sichuan – 1972 London)

Materials:

Plastic cable pipes, normal and black MDF, wood, sound absorptive material, acoustic fabric, acrylic mirror, steel fasteners, 8-channel electroacoustic installation, (loudspeakers, microphones, PC, 15’ real-time echo composition), text.
Dimensions variable.

Sponsored by Dietzel Univolt, Dayton Audio, Akustikstoff.com, Homatherm, TræfiberDanmark ApS, Odeon A/S, Rias A/S.

Photo by David Stjernholm.

Photos by George koutsouris.

Photo by David Stjernholm.

Photo by David Stjernholm.

Photo by George Koutsouris.

Photo by David Stjernholm.

Lip sync is an installation consisting of sculpture, sound and video depicting the discussion of emotional labour, whith a focus on the usage of the female voice in narrative technologies and urban soundscapes. the female voice as a normative guidence in daily routes, cinema and contemporary video essay. A monolouge script discusses these problematics.

Rika djur is a dramatized compilation of video recordings made between 2002 and 2005 by Sara Sjölin, her close friend and accomplice My, and Sara’s extended family. It uses this rough biographical material to examine communication across generations, technologies and species. The manipulation of the original recordings is minimal and lies mainly with the editing process.

One might label the film a bio-com, edited with a humorous, tender gaze at Sara’s own, as well as her family’s, desire to document and glorify everyday situations and moments. The film is a playful portrait of this desire and a testament to how the camera nourished and magnified the theatrical aspects of a tightly-knit community in a small Swedish town. Sara Sjölin’s practice often relies on highlighting parts of the artistic process that are usually peripheral in a finished work, the leftovers and surplus from the initial desire to make art. In Rika djur she extracts from this a sincere humor, the joy of parallel perspectives. In this way, the film makes these recorded memories seem anticipatory of Sara Sjölin’s current artistic practice, as if they’ve been waiting to be represented.

In the audio piece Eva, direct observation blends with speculation to paradoxically create a connection where there can be none, or one that isn’t known. By putting forth prejudice and passed-on mythological ”knowledge” – basically anthropomorphic – about snakes, it is as if Eva sheds the skin of interspecies relations. Sara’s speech is structured like a message, as on a voicemail, addressing a listener without expecting a response. Here is also a way of making a very concrete and visual description turn abstract, by holding back information about the object described. As it unfolds, this description becomes a narrative about ways of relating to the strange and unfamiliar. On a greater scale, this speech makes us think about how the gap between a domesticated animal and a wild one is bridged by discourse itself.

Silver opera

Silver pool

calm

surface

Light blue paint

Silver humming bird

purple feathers

pink feathers

You are onomatopoetica

Great glaciers still covered central america

a mosaic of multi-coloured stones

Glass screens & moveable internal walls

Dynamism of volumes & vertical space

Enigmatic silhouettes,

information-packed

defy easy description.

sometimes /

an intimate measure

of understanding

seems to be floating

in the taste

of the spicy chillies

and curries.

Melon postcards

Mango postcards

Jungle postcards

Postcards&melon

postcards

Garden postcards

Postcards

Podcast from the garden

Passion fruit podcast

Humming bird

Architectural space.

on the outskirts of the capital in a desert of volcanic rock.

clinging closely to the lichen-covered trunk.

It shone in seven bands of colour.

Pattern of circles

the whirlpools in the water

leafs drift by

raindrops draw

a pattern of circles

the light is sepia

earlier today

a beautiful detail

a million falling

drops on the tracks

we took the train

the amber museum is closed

we’ll buy some maxi singles

instead

i’ll follow you back

to the station

we talk in the door

opening

texture in the digital realm

generating sterile

ear dancing

dancing ear

the dot is black

emotions of the voice

acorns

i went to two meetings today

and cleaned two fridges

Silent bamboo

gas silo echo

tonight I feel a lot older

I truly enjoy listening

Dice caleidoscope

ultimatively

royal moments

royalty

eggs

opera cocoon

gut

endless moments

one after the other

enters into your life

from outside of time

Heaven and Earth, 2018

You take a box of instant mashed potatoes and a jar of apple sauce. You open the jar, you twist it, you twist it quite hard. You open it, you empty it out, now if you can’t empty it all out, use a spoon, and then, you add the instant mashed potatoes and then you have Himmel und Erde. Heaven and Earth!
Heaven and Earth is a dish by Anni Albers. It is also the title of Emilia Bergmark’s graduation work from Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi, an installation featuring interior elements, sculptures and a monologue by a bitter tea kettle.

All textiles in the installation are generously sponsored by Kvadrat.

‘A bitter tea kettle is a seasonal worker in a life-style cafe at The International Art Space Station that orbits Earth. It is off-season now, so she is back on Earth to have her first exhibition in the art-world. She is an aspiring mixed media artist and her pieces mainly explore motives of edibles, such as vegetables, sandwiches, cheese and ham. However she admits to feeling disappointed with how the show came out. She feels that it is too heavy and a bit stiff, perhaps due to the gravity of the context.’ ¹

1.The synopsis for the sound piece ‘Heaven and Earth’, Emilia Bergmark, 2018

‘It’s a potato… yes, it’s a sculpture ‘A Kilo of Potatoes’…’³

3. Excerpt from the sound piece ‘Heaven and Earth’, Emilia Bergmark, 2018

‘What are you looking at? [as if looking around] Yeah – that’s ‘Ham and Cheese and Toast’. [Paus- filler] Eh…

Did-did you ever think about ham? That a slice of ham is a picture of a ham, made of ham. And, did you ever think about vegetarian ham? That vegetarian ham is a picture of a ham… not made from ham.’ ⁴

4. Excerpt from the sound piece ‘Heaven and Earth’, Emilia Bergmark, 2018

I made a sculpture recently, it’s inspired by Constantin Brancusi’s ‘Bird in Space’ – Do you know that piece? It’s a bronze sculpture – abstract – it communicates the notion of flight itself rather than describing the appearance of any particular bird… or something… [To herself] It could be seen as rather phallic, but perhaps that’s just me… Anyways… I made a sculpture inspired by ‘Bird in Space’. But it’s less abstract… more… Figurative! [Matter a fact] It’s a cucumber. When I was working on it in my room at the space-station I would joke about it and call it [jokingly]’Cucumber in Space’ [paus] But it’s just a joke… Down here it’s bad-taste to joke about Brancusi. It’s all quite serious down here in the art-world I’ve noticed. ⁵

There it is, the cucumber, it’s over there. [Pointing] Look, just over there!

5. Excerpt from the sound piece ‘Heaven and Earth’, Emilia Bergmark, 2018

Voice: Lisa Lind Dunbar
Music arrangement: Simon Brinck
Recording: Hannibal Andersen

Photo credits: David Stjernholm

THANK YOU: Martin Erik Andersen, Moa Alskog, Aurora Bergmark, Sara Bergmark, Karin Bergmark, Birgit Bergmark, Viktor Billund, Inge Friberg, Raffaele Gallina, Maria Gondek, Karen Harsbo, Maria Lepistö, Olof Olsson,
Henrik Reimann, David Stjernholm, Joel Stoorhöök, Franco Turchi and The Royal Danish Academy for Fine Arts.

The project has been generously supported by the Fund for Immaterial Labour of the Royal Danish Art Academy and Carl Friesendahls Minnesfond. All textiles in the installation are sponsored by Kvadrat.

Frederik Worm, ‘Enduring Innocence’, 2018. Detail, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2018.

Frederik Worm, ‘Hedonistic Sustainability’, 2018. Detail, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2018.

Frederik Worm, ‘Hedonistic Sustainability’, 2018. Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2018.

Frederik Worm, ‘Enduring Innocence’, 2018. Detail, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2018.

Frederik Worm, ‘Enduring Innocence’, 2018. Detail, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2018.

Frederik Worm, ‘Enduring Innocence’, 2018. Installation View, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2018.

albin.werle@gmail.com