Maja Bäckström
Flower Heart
“The work Flower Heart consists of five portrait photographs printed on textile with embroidered floral motives. The flowers were chosen based on their symbolic meaning according to the book The Swedish Language of Flowers, and how that meaning correlates to my relationship with the person portrayed. For each portrait, there is an embroidered book containing the flowers in the portrait along with their symbolic meaning.
For my degree project, I wanted to explore the therapeutic qualities of the embroidery technique. I began working on the project right after finishing a therapy programme for eating disorders. The work became a continuation of this, a way to leave behind old and unhealthy habits and to focus my thoughts on the repetitive work of stitching. It is also an investigation into how embroidery can be used to manifest love and care for others, and to let that love live on in the world after we leave it.”
Amandine Fong
Voyage Voyage
“Modern production technologies have fostered mass production and the standardisation of affordable goods. Luxury and culturally meaningful symbols have become commonplace and largely devoid of their significance.
How is our cultural identity affected by this phenomenon? Despite this, it survives and transforms itself.
Voyage Voyage is a set of different food containers associated with different cultural identities. The containers are inspired by blue and white porcelain; a material and technique created in China, imported into Europe, and then reinterpreted and appropriated. The set explores how traditional patterns and decoration lend meaning and social value to objects. It acts as an incentive to start a discussion and reflection around globalisation and the standardisation of our environment. It is an invitation to discover different cultures, their similarities and differences, as well as to acknowledge them and reflect on our own traditions and their iconic symbols.”
Petronella Petander
The Haven
“The Haven takes place in the communal laundry house, typical to Swedish housing complexes and a kind of frame of mind for ordinary life. The laundry house is not only a warm and temporary safe space, it is also a place where it is possible to be somebody else, for a couple of hours. In an uncertain and vanishing existence, simple everyday routines – like doing laundry – become a way to hold on, and to belong.
The film in its entirety can be seen in our group show at Mint, ABF-huset, 5-16 June. In the exhibition, I will also present sequences from the second (stand-alone) part of my degree project; a prose text about the background, process and coming alive of The Haven. This presentation is made specifically for the occasion.”