FROM HERE TO REALITY — KULTURHUSET (2012)
Reality meets the world of dreams in Martina Hoogland Ivanow’s silent, evocative, almost turbid images. The process of taking photographs has become her way of becoming aware of the relationships that exist between these two states. With her idiosyncratic imagery she explores worlds that she both belongs to and is excluded from.
One of Hoogland Ivanow’s best-known art projects is Speedway (2001–2005). Over a period of several years she photographed Speedway drivers in Mongolia, Siberia, and Northern Europe. The series depicts different modes of contemplation between the drivers, the audience, and the photographer, and in the cold wintery landscape we are met with a state seemingly without beginning or end.
Hoogland Ivanow has also had periods where she has explored her own relationship to traveling. She made her way to various no man’s lands, deserted areas in Siberia, Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, and Murmansk and found that the places that were geographically remote were easier to photograph than that which was emotionally close by. Center and periphery becomes polarized on a deeper level. The photographs were collated in the suite of images entitled Far too Close (2008).
In the series Satellite (2010) Hoogland Ivanow sought out different communities, such as eco villages and other alternative-living communities. She has always been interested in relationships between people and how we can define ourselves through others. The people in Hoogland Ivanow’s images seem to have their heads perpetually turned away or hidden in the shadows. The photographs represent humans per se rather than individuals or relationships. In the on-going series Härifrån till verkligheten [From Here to Reality] (2005–2013) Hoogland Ivanow explores the relationship between man and nature—a relationship that oscillates between control and a lack thereof, where the unfathomable instills a security of sorts. This exhibition includes her new video work Annelise Frankfurt (2013), which deals with the life of the dancer, choreographer, and doll-maker who was active in the 1950s and 60s and who has been largely forgotten. Annelise Frankurt’s (1926–2007) fate is fascinating and links in to Hoogland Ivanow’s interest in opposites, the in-between, and human relationships. This work will be shown for the first time at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern.
Martina Hoogland Ivanow (1973) grew up in Stockholm and later studied photography in Paris and New York. Her international breakthrough in the 1990s took place primarily in London through many commissions. Over the past ten years, Hoogland Ivanow has been entirely focused on her own artistic projects. Her work can be found in a wide range of collections including Moderna Museet, Museet för Fotokonst in Denmark, and Statens Konstråd.
Curator: Maria Patomella
This exhibition was produced by Kulturhuset Stadsteatern.