Space, longing and contentment
In today's world of almost unlimited digital accessibility, man and nature remain in analog form, affected but also fundamentally unchanged. The distance between can vary, both physically and emotionally. A digital exhibition is in itself distanced, and the format is therefore particularly well suited to reinforce the theme of Closeness of life - World Distance.
The exhibition revolves around the longing and the distance that was felt between me, other people and places - both before and during the pandemic and which remains in its aftermath.
The selection of works is a mixture of longing for places that the artist Birgitta Eriksson herself has missed during the last few years of partially closed existence, but also a gratitude for the everyday snacks she has been able to enjoy and a view to places she dreams of.
The artworks show an augmented reality where the tree trunks glow, the city boils with light and heat and people are few or absent. The safety and softness of old, well-known plants and buildings as well as the hardness of stone and concrete are wrapped in every imaginable shade of the sky or allowed to stand out from the darkness. The transience of the milkweed in contrast to the permanence of the stones may represent how time both rushes and seems to stand still. The desirable freedom and living space is manifested by the children's seemingly unaffected bathing in the river and the Baltic Sea and the value of human relationships and interactions is sensed in the impersonal public spaces of big cities.
But in all the gaps, contentment and closeness are still possible if only experiences, dreams and memories are shared in some way. As long as we can remember a place and a community far away through the simple petals of an herb, so long can a single image be the key to preserved closeness of life.
Birgitta Eriksson is an Uppsala-based artist with roots in Stockholm and Norrbotten. Growing up, she drew and painted extensively, and as a seventeen-year-old participated in the Youth Spring Salon at Kulturhuset in Stockholm. Now in recent years she has rediscovered and immersed herself in watercolor painting and found her home ground. Birgitta's paintings are often colorful and fluid, and the motifs vary from abstract to more concrete, sometimes with elements of illustration.
What? Digital exhibition "Closeness to life - World distance"
When? 4.11.2022 - 6.1.2023
Where? Digitally at nipa.ax
Workshop
Birgitta Eriksson also held a workshop on Saturday 5.11, at 13.00 - 16.00. The artist showed and told how she works with watercolor and creates effective nature motifs. The workshop was quickly fully booked and the participants had to paint themselves.
