FINDING PRESENCE OF THE ABSENT

To those who are soon forgotten

2020

This project concerns the ordinary stories. It is about the forgotten and the things that have gone unnoticed. It is about female history and is a political

exploration into what and who is allowed to take space. I focus on everyday life in a domestic space, where I see these things that are discarded, often are

overlooked and not talked about.

I explore society from a kitchen point of view with a grandmother's life in focus.

It is a story about everyday rituals in the home, which are of an important cultural deed. The objects support her in these rituals, and they also help me to

tell.

My objects create a room to remember those who are soon no longer with us.

The Window

In my grandmother's recipe book I find recipes from other women. Here is a bank of heritage but also a community. You share, thoughtfully, your best recipes

so that someone else can use it. Everyone's name is printed among the recipes, so you do not forget someone's kind deed. The recipe book becomes a sisterhood to me, a helping hand from another woman, a loving act. Everyone can relate to a

recipe book, everyone can understand its power.

I have chosen to show the recipes on a window, to give it space. I want to open up something that has been closed in a shelf for so long, to share it. I have engraved the letters on the window glass to make it everlasting.

The Window , detail

The Kitchen Workbench

My grandmother´s baking machine is standing on the kitchen workbench beside

the sink. She has used it since the late sixties, a modernity that allowed her hands to rest, if only for a little while. A repetition in everyday life, sometimes even a

requirement.

The baking machine goes round and round. It becomes a repetitive pattern of everyday life. Chores that never end for the women's body of the time. Round and round, on and on. Even though the repetitive patterns carry the everyday and make it function. Round and round, on and on. It does not have an end.

According to studies, women spend more than 14 hours on housework each week while men spend about 7 hours. We have come a long way, but it is still

clear whose hands are not allowed to rest.

The Kitchen Workbench, detail
Projected video on workbench

The Embroidery Pattern

The embroidery was made of an embroidery pattern, something to follow, to stay within. Often you got the right colour on the thread with the pattern so there was

no room for creativity.

I cannot help associating the embroidery pattern with a woman's body. Something that is always there, always a support, but never gets recognized. An

invisible helping hand that is taken for granted and works in the hidden.

The etching technique to the copper is making my piece permanently in contrast to the original embroidery pattern on a paper. I want to give it its right value.

The Embroidery Pattern

nr. 2072

The Embroidery Pattern

nr. 2025

The Embroidery Pattern

nr. 2019

The Embroidery Pattern

nr. 87836

The Embroidery Pattern

nr. 4029

The Embroidery Pattern

nr. 200/53

The Embroidery Pattern

nr. 27508

The Copper Moulds

The copper moulds are from different homes with different patina. Some have been intensely polished, others not. But they have never been used for anything other than hanging on a wall.

The copper moulds become a representation of many women who together get a common voice.

The Copper Moulds, detail

The Towels

The towel hangs on the hanger in the kitchen; it is used every day and its uses are many. In this kitchen that does not have a dishwasher it is used to dry dishes, but also to dry your hands on and to put over the growing dough. Before the

guest arrives the used towel is replaced with a new; a white, mangled towel that is hanged up to display a clean home that is well taken care of.

With the towel I want to demonstrate the different events from a kitchen where the moments are preserved. The paraffin surrounding the towels is a preservation of a memory of someone and its actions but also a conservation of structures to make them visible.

The Towels, detail

The Towels, detail

The installation

With my pieces, made of materials that most people recognize, I want to show different layers of history and structures that are invisible to so many. They are present in everything around us.

I use the kitchen as a narrative format and my pieces help me tell. With the room I try to create the presence of a person and its objects to make things visible but

also show what is happening in the scenery I describe.

With my installation, which create a memorial, I have tried to make her visible in the objects and the scenery that reflect her even though she is not there. I have

tried to make her present in her absence.