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‘Your Application is Pending’ is a performance based on the piece ‘Genuine Government Issue’. With my new Departments I also had the freedom to make myself the head of all of them. During this performance piece the audience could come and meet me in my temporary office at Cigarrvägen 13 in Hökarängen, a project space in a suburb of Stockholm. The audience could apply to any of the Departments; I would interview them one by one for and after the questioning I approved or the denied their application. The application forms was found on location as well as the wall of Departments. In ‘Your Application is Pending’ I take on the role as the head of my own departments, dressed in a suit and with a custom made rubber stamp I investigated the absurdity of a questioning like this. I explore the role as the one holding power but also invite the audience to play with me and laugh at the absurdity of authority, and take silly stuff seriously.

Thank you everyone who came and participated!!!

The wonderful pictures are taken by Fredrik Streiffert.

When I was in America last year I bought a hat. The hat had a label that read: “Genuine Government Issue, 100% wool watch cap.” Beneath the text the “Official Seal of the Department of Defense” was printed. Because I am not a US citizen, I often feel that the government is involved in my life. I have to report my profession and my reason for entering the country every time at customs, I have to be very careful what I say and don’t say, what I do and more specifically don’t do. With that label in the hat, I felt that everything I do, all the decisions that I made were “Genuinely Government Issued”. This kind of bureaucracy is of course common for all immigrants, all travelers but also within our own nation we need to take part in it. Both the reality of it and the absurdity of it is what I became interested in.

In the watercolor series “Genuine Government Issue” I created new Departments of my concern. If the Government is going to be invested in my life I reason that some new departments would need to be constituted.

‘Your Application is Pending’ is a performance based on the piece ‘Genuine Government Issue’. With my new Departments I also had the freedom to make myself the head of all of them. During the performance, you can come and meet me in my temporary office at Cigarrvägen 13 in Hökarängen. The performance will take place only once, on March 7th between 5-9 pm. You can apply to any of the Departments; I will schedule an interview for you and if you qualify you may be approved. Application forms will be found on location. Welcome!

Departments to apply to:

1.     Department of Defense no.1

2.     Department of Defense no.2

3.     Department of Defense no.3

4.     Department of Wool

5.     Department of Love

6.     Department of Despair

7.     Department of Horror

8.     Department of Romantic Fools

9.     Department of Desire

10.  Department of Good Old Friends

11.  Department of Poets

12.  Department of Candy and Clowns

13.  Department of Ambiguity

14.  Department of Porridge

15.  Department of Deadlines

16.  Department of Disappointments

17.  Department of Naps

18.  Department of Cigarettes and Beer

19.  Department of Loneliness

20.  Department of Bad TV

Cigarrvägen 13 is a 30 sqm artist run space set up by Ami, Frida, Sebastian, Ylva and Johan. From the opening February 22, 2013 the group would like to hand over the use of the space to other artists. Their aim is to offer the possibility to realize projects or exhibitions, to arrange meetings, screenings, conversations and other public events.

Press release:

Exhibition dates: march 1-22 2013. Opening Hours: Tue 16-19 Wed-Sat 12-16

There are other kinds of rooms where to show art than the most expected ones. Some of them has shrinken to become a room within the room or have turned into mobile galleries carried on wheels. Others occupy spaces that originally were used for something else. Some are available wherever you are, as long as there is a computer or phone with connection to the internet. Mutual to all these alternative galleries is a humouristic and often also poetic way of exploring where and how art could be displayed. Since most of these galleries are run by artists this may also become a strategy of survival. If the artworld sometimes seems limited or too conventional, why simply adapt to it, when instead one could create new forums for art and provide experimental spaces? Sometimes these galleries are basically a way of trying to reach out to a new audience when by surprise showing up at unexpected locations.

The exhibition Alternative Galleries are working on many layers at the same time. Each one of the visiting galleries will have activities going on, exhibitions, talks etc during the exhibition period.

The exhibiting galleries:
Galleri 0GMS Kitchen drawer from Sofia, Bulgaria, guest appearance in Verklighetens kitchen. The gallery is run by Ivan Moudov. 0GMS will show the piece “Coordinates” by Maximilian Pramatarov.
www.0gms.com/exhibitions/past/0gms-drawer-project/menu
Gallery 1:10 Dollhouse from Stockholm, Sweden, appears as original. The gallery is run by Anna Lidberg. Gallery 1:10 hosts a group show ”Ward Robe in Spare Oom” with Johanna Adebäck, Merve Ertufan, Vilda Kvist, Johan Thurfjell och Tina Nykvist.
http://annalidberg.com/gallery1-10
Galeria Gablotka Cabinet from Gdansk, Polend, guest appearance in the info-cabinet of Verkligheten. The gallery is run by Maciek Salamon and Tomasz Wierzchowski. Galeria Gablotka will show something partly produced in Verkligheten/Umeå, most likely in cooperation with a new local fellow artist.
www.gablotka.blogspot.se
Konsthall 323 Car from Stockholm, Sweden, guest appearance in a borrowed car. The gallery is run by Frida Krohn och Ylva Trapp. During 1-2 of March visitors are welcome to be driven around in Konsthall 323 c/o Citroën. The gallery offers  fifteen minute conversation about difficulties. The Journeys can be booked at Verkligheten.
www.konsthall323.se
Off the Hook Gallery Playhouse from Årjäng, Sweden, appears as a model. The gallery is run by David Nordström. Model made by the artist Linn Henriksson Strååt.
www.offthehook.se
pid web gallery Webbased gallery from Gothenburg, Sweden, Showed on a borrowed computer. The gallery is run by Ulla Mogren. pid will show the work ”Zenons pil” by Tina Nykvist. All the previous exhibitons of the gallery are also available at the site.
www.konstepidemin.se/pid

Thank you Elisabeth Frieberg and Fredrik Streiffert for the amazing photos!

Upon completing her MFA at Pratt in New York, Anna Sörenson received a grant from the American Embassy in Sweden to study American land art in California, Nevada and Utah in summer 2012. Short after, she developed Suitcase Paintings, as a way of questioning the context of paintings as an object.

At wip: Konsthall this February, Anna Sorenson is presenting the premier exhibition of Suitcase Paintings along with three projects developed at the Vermont Studio Center where she had a artist residency in December 2012.
Visiting address: Wip:sthlm – Årsta Skolgränd 14 BD – 117 43 Stockholm – kontakt@wipsthlm.se

The entrance to wip:konsthall is located in an industrial building, ca 50 m on the left when exiting the train station.

Exhibition opening times:
February 2nd-14th, 4-6 pm
Thursday-Sunday or by appointment

Bio: Born and raised in Stockholm, Anna Sörenson received her BFA from Umeå University in northern Sweden and subsequently pursued an exchange semester with Parsons the New School in New York. In 2012, Anna received her MFA from Pratt Institute supported by her Fulbright Scholarship.

She assembled her first solo exhibition fall 2012, at Ed Varie in New York City, highlighting her works on paper. Her second solo show at Opus Project Space in New York focused on her collage and text works.

Sörenson has worked for the artists Pat Steir and Joseph Kosuth and has been selected for an artist in residence at the Wassic Project in spring 2013.

Index of Intimacy

‘Index of Intimacy’ is an artist book project about and how we translate our memory into color and texture.  It is also an exercise in self-exposure, making my life the subject of my work and myself the object. A consequent of Internet in our daily life has the private photo become common to share. Cellphone pictures and computer webcams can make us share our most intimate moments in an instant.

The book is based of 17 cellphone photographs. The pictures are documenting day-to –day activities and private moments. From each image I take a color sample, and make a solid color photo in photoshop. The solid color photo becomes a color representation of the image, a memory.  In book the Index of Intimacy, the color photo is on one side of the spread and a watercolor interpretation of the color on the other. Each spread has a title, taken from what the ‘real’ picture represents like a diary extract; ‘Lips’, ‘New Yorker Hotel’ and ‘Change of location’. The ‘real’ picture, the cellphone picture, is printed and hidden in folds in the book so the viewer can pick them out and see the original picture.

To have the actual image hidden in the books folds forces the viewer to becomes a voyeur, to pick up the picture and pulling something private, viewing something intimate.

The solid color picture represents a sensation, the valence of the moment, the feeling o the picture. The watercolor repetition, handmade with a more fragile and sensitive look gives the color life.  But the book is also about self-reflection, viewing, reviewing my own life and indexing it.  The index creates a distance and a way for me to make myself the object of investigation.

First day in Vermont I needed to by a hat. I when to the local clothes store and found a nice green woolen hat that I bough. In the hat there was a label. A white paper label with the text “Genuine Government Issue, 100% wool watch cap” and the there was a little emblem with a eagle and a circle text state “Department of Defense, United States of America”.

I wondered; what does the Department of Defense have to do with my hat? First I thought it was funny, with a government approved hat. And then I also felt uneasy, like I was watched, that the government is controlling me all the way down to my hat.

Being a non-US citizen I often feel like the government are involved in my life. I have to report what I do every time I enter the country, I have to be very careful what I say and don’t say, and what I do and don’t do. The very basic stuff like if you work, if you have a relationship and if you do, is it an American partner? Where are you from? Where did you study? Why? Where are you going next? Why are you here for such long time or why are you here so short? Who are you meeting? Where are you living? The questions are non-stop; starting at the airport, every time I talk to a stranger, or just catching up with a friend, all the time spent on American soil, to the point I leave again. Many times I don’t mind. But with that label in the hat I felt that everything I do, all decisions I make are a “genuine government issue”.

In the watercolor series “Genuine Government Issue” I let my day-to-day thoughts control the content of the Department. If the Government is going to be so invested in my life I reason that some new departments would need to be constituted.

Other exciting news is that ‘The Art Mint’ will launch this Thursday. ‘The Art Mint’ is a website where you can purchase one of a kind original works of art, straight out of the studio. I have ten pieces in the site so take a look! Art Mint is carefully curated by the talented curator Kelly Worman, the lady behind Studio Spoken co-founder of Ground Arts Organization.

She says ”All works sold on Art Mint are one of a kind, at an affordable price, from up and coming New York artists.  As with any art collecting, buying from Art Mint will not only improve your space, but can be looked at as an investment with a future return!”

I am looking forward to it!