Iaspis Open studios 21-23/9 2012
The Entrance, The Flag and the Reforming in between is a result of a six-month stay at Iaspis in Stockholm and was exhibited for three days at Iaspis Open House. It consists of a group of interventions that have been added at site at different times as reflections of the spatial, social and political conditions, addressing the relationship between production and representation. The physical elements are used to govern and influence the visitors. Like the post-ideological consumerist-society it is a system of manipulation. But instead of manipulating an increased desire to consume the aim is to emphasize the production, the conditions of production and the need of producing a state of alertness.
Outside Iaspis White Pillar, one half of the work White Pillar/Public Green, is put around a streetlight. The column highlights the public structures that support the community. Inside, in the exhibition space at Iaspis there is a 7 meters long green steel-pipe from a fence in a park in Stockholm attached to the wall in knee height, right after the entrance of the space steering the audience to the right. Public Green, the other half of White Pillar/Public Green is a public structure that exercises control.
In Studio 6 a white cubic space, The Entrance is applied just inside the door. To the left in The Entrance there is a sign with the text In the Presence of the artist, as a reminder of the current situation on the open house. The Entrance makes the white cube to a barrier that hinders but also something that creates attention before entering the space behind, the studio, a space intended for production not representation.
The studios at Iaspis are equipped with a set of furniture. A sofa, a shelf, three tables, one chair and a remote control to control the lamps and adjust the light-conditions into different forms of work.
To the right of the entrance there is a workbench, Table 1-Workbench. Below the workbench there is a small machine attached to the shelf under the table. The machine constantly presses the button on the remote to shift the light slowly from cold daylight, perfect for painters, to a warm lamplight that suit work by the computer. Behind the workbench there is a black sofa, Sofa in the Game, with a black plastic container attached on the wall above. The black container holds a Ping-pong ball with a wire that keeps the ball still. Between the desk and the couch there is a shelf, Storage and Shelf, with boards stacked behind and below. On the left side of the room there is a small table, Table 3-Coffee Table, with a screen attached to one side.
Diagonally across the space there is a steel-wire stretched with a movable plumb and two brackets hanging in the wire. On the left wall where the wire is attached a white A4 sheet is put behind the wire. The wire is attached at head level, forcing you to bow to pass. In the middle of the space a white- board with a drawing is leaning towards a white cubic podium, Framework that falls flat for the fake-information-system
and for fake-nature. In front of the drawing a frame made of wood and steel lays on the floor. A piece of bark is placed on the white cubic podium. The bark is sprayed with NCS S8010-G10Y, a green color used by the city of Stockholm at public furniture and fences. The green bark is mirrored in the reflecting surface rear of the White- board.
The Device is a fabric attached to the wall, painted with white wall color with a flash/ crack on the front side and the inside/backside in the Stockholm public-green NCS S8010-G10Y.
The street outside where the space is situated is one of the first districts in Stockholm where people living in the area began to manifest opinions from their private appartments through the windows facing the street. It started with rainbow-colored Pride Parade flags to support the parade. Other manifestations consisted of white sheets that quickly soiled to brown, as a protest against pollution and red flags as protest to alterations in the area.
The Flag is a political representation, the spectacle and the image of the attempts to reach out and make change.
