Tell Me
TELL ME
Material: Perals/Beads / 2008Dimensions: 100 x 125 cmTitels: Christamas Evening, Snowmann, Vacations, Pram, Christining.Tell me consists of 5 beadsheets with motives from the family photoalbum. The using of pearls makes one think of childhood and the motives makes you reflect on family events such as vacations, Christmas Eve, playing in the snow, Christening and sleeping in a pram. The five sheets are placed in a huge plastic page with photo-pockets as we recognize it from traditional photo albums.
Kalsmose brings on the family as a central theme in her work. The family is traditionally a symbol of and social guarantor of happiness, especially in the United States. Basing the pearlsheets on photograps documemts the connection with real life and makes the work authentic. It could be pictures taken from Kalsmose´s own familyalbum but in the pearlsheets the figures are made without faces meaning this could be anybody´s family pictures or anybody´s life.
Pearlsheets deplaces the photography as a guarantor of the real. Kalsmose takes it further from traditional representation. Leaving out the faces and the pixelation of the images leads the thought to something technological that underlines the stereotype. A technic that Kalsmose uses quite consciously to take the private out in the public sfere as if to ask “what do you see? In the making of these pearlsheets there is no sign of unhappy traumatic circumstances. On the contrary Kalsmose has chosen to work with idealised stereotypes like the pram, the christmas tree, holiday scenes etc – all the things that we connect to familyhappiness. But who knows what lies behind the neutralised faces and the pixelation? And what lies behind the motivation for working with childhood photographs in this naïve way?
Thematically it´s a work that – on the face of it - looks back. It points at the importance of episodes from childhood and how much these events have formed our identity and whether or not we are capable of distancing ourselves from it. but the tittle ”Tell me” adds another perspective. A narrative perspective that invites the spectator to tell the story as he sees it. This interplay is typical of the relational aesthetics described by Bourrioud and makes room for other interpretations in retrospective. That way it becomes a constructive and rebuilding project to work with identity. Pearls/beads are the media of a child and underline the naive aesthetic language of the work. As a photograph fragmented in pixels, the pearl images open up the possibility of identifying with the past, and at the same time of distancing ourselves from it, in order to take hold of the future.
Kalsmose uses the family portraits to make other people tell the story about the happy idealised childhood that could have been…
The naive aesthetic language of these works is underlined by using the media of childhood. Pearls/beads are the media of a child.
By using pearls I want to reflects on episodes from childhood such as vacations, Christmas Eve, playing in the snow, Christening and sleeping in a pram.
I question the importance of episodes from childhood and how much these events have formed our identity and whether or not we are capable of distancing ourselves from it.
As a photograph fragmented in pixels, the pearl images open up the possibility of identifying with the past, and at the same time of distancing ourselves from it, in order to take hold of the future.
Tell Me also asks the viewer to interact with the piece and tell the story of Kalsmoses upbringing.
Pearlsheets deplaces the photography as a guarantor of the real. Kalsmose takes it further from traditional representation. Leaving out the faces and the pixelation of the images leads the thought to something technological that underlines the stereotype. A technic that Kalsmose uses quite consciously to take the private out in the public sfere as if to ask “what do you see? In the making of these pearlsheets there is no sign of unhappy traumatic circumstances. On the contrary Kalsmose has chosen to work with idealised stereotypes like the pram, the christmas tree, holiday scenes etc – all the things that we connect to familyhappiness. But who knows what lies behind the neutralised faces and the pixelation? And what lies behind the motivation for working with childhood photographs in this naïve way?
Thematically it´s a work that – on the face of it - looks back. It points at the importance of episodes from childhood and how much these events have formed our identity and whether or not we are capable of distancing ourselves from it. but the tittle ”Tell me” adds another perspective. A narrative perspective that invites the spectator to tell the story as he sees it. This interplay is typical of the relational aesthetics described by Bourrioud and makes room for other interpretations in retrospective. That way it becomes a constructive and rebuilding project to work with identity. Pearls/beads are the media of a child and underline the naive aesthetic language of the work. As a photograph fragmented in pixels, the pearl images open up the possibility of identifying with the past, and at the same time of distancing ourselves from it, in order to take hold of the future.
Kalsmose uses the family portraits to make other people tell the story about the happy idealised childhood that could have been…
The naive aesthetic language of these works is underlined by using the media of childhood. Pearls/beads are the media of a child.
By using pearls I want to reflects on episodes from childhood such as vacations, Christmas Eve, playing in the snow, Christening and sleeping in a pram.
I question the importance of episodes from childhood and how much these events have formed our identity and whether or not we are capable of distancing ourselves from it.
As a photograph fragmented in pixels, the pearl images open up the possibility of identifying with the past, and at the same time of distancing ourselves from it, in order to take hold of the future.
Tell Me also asks the viewer to interact with the piece and tell the story of Kalsmoses upbringing.