Work Notes (2022-2024), HD video, text, no sound, 08:00 min. loop
Soles (2024), photograph, framed
Through her ongoing work with photography and video, Freja Sofie Kirk examines the inner mechanisms of images, and how media is absorbed into our relationships and routines, and we, in turn, are absorbed into media. Kirk’s video installations are characterized by their hypnotic affective force where captivating sequences draw the viewer into stories around power, architecture, commodities, fetishism, and the choreography of labor, challenging perception through sensorial and cinematic techniques.
Kirk’s video Work Notes is composed of entries from the artist’s diary. All the writings revolve around her work experiences with the production of images: Both behind and in front of the camera. What connects the situations is her attempt to create an image, but to continuously lose it to others – unwillingly ending up as the motif or as part of the technical equipment. Work Notes adresses the labor in the production of the image and the negotiations of power and agency behind the scenes. Even when one holds the camera, there is someone else calling the shots. Another layer of the work concerns the artist’s own role within these power dynamics, instructing others to repeat actions over and over until she gets the right shot. The intertwined set of reflections give a view into the corrupted practices of both commercial and artistic image production, and calls attention to the permeability of the image itself, where we are all at risk of getting drawn into the picture.
As an extension of Kirk’s narrative on labor and the ownership of one’s image, she also presents Soles, a photograph of the artist’s feet from her profile on a foot fetish website. Unlike the anecdotes in the video, the artist here maintains control of how her own body is represented and viewed, even if economic motivations play a part. By displaying this photograph within the gallery space, Kirk also explores how an image changes its meaning and value depending on its context. Together, Kirk’s video and photograph seek to understand the role the image plays in negotiations between power and the body, and calls attention to the ambivalences around visual representations within a capitalist economy.
– Post Brothers
Documentation: David Stjernholm
