DP ART EXHIBITION - Lovisa Kjellgren

Lovisa Kjellgren

Linnea

Medium: acrylic paint on canvas / Size: 80 x 180 cm

This piece is a repeated portrait in disguise. The basic structure of a face, meaning eyes, nose, mouth & cheek bones are replicated numerous times. This is done to show the importance of the background, which represents a girl's personality. She is down to earth and isn't afraid to show her emotions, which is shown through the colours and sharp lines.

Under the Microscope

Medium: Acrylic paint & sand paste on canvas / Size: 90 x 90 cm

Through this painting I wanted to represent my family. It's a Family portrait on a deeper level. The one thing that can never separate us as a family is our DNA. So each circle in the picture represents a cell. Each cell represents a family member. The use of sand paste as the texture of the painting is a metaphor for ‘rough times’. Every family goes through fights or ‘rough times’ however no matter how damaging they are or how tough they may be, you are bound to your family forever.

Genders

Medium: Acrylic paint on canvas / Size: Each Painting 100 x 70 cm

This painting conveys gender stereotypes.

These are two paintings that are exactly the same except for the colour. The colours blue and pink were purposely used since they are the stereotypical colours for girls and boys.

Within each painting there are two outlines of a face, one female and one male. With this I wanted to express that one doesn't have to follow typical stereotypes.

This is shown through the simple statement that a girl can like blue and a boy can like pink.

Tetris

Medium: Styrofoam with paper shapes / Size: 25 x 18 x 1.5 cm

This sculpture transmits how emotions start to stack upon each other. Having grown up in Europe, and moved to a new country every 4-5 years. I discovered new feelings and emotions for each of the countries. Some were joyful, and bright while others were sorrowful, and dark. They never really disappear; they are just stacked upon each other. You take the feeling one at a time when it comes and you stack it upon the previous one just like blocks. Similar to the video game Tetris.

Stuck in my head

Medium: Bought polystyrene head, collaged magazine pages, acrylic paint / Size: 15 x 25 x 20 cm

This sculpture represents the identity society tries to make you into. Especially as women we are stuck on wanting or forced to be the ‘perfect’ body that magazines show. Instead of seeing who you are yourself, you see the stereotypes, standards, and unrealistic models. I chose to place the magazine piece on a head, because all these thoughts are bottled up and made bigger in your head. These thoughts are followed by emotions of feeling worthless, not good enough, or simply ugly.

Breaking it down

Medium: watercolour on paper / Size: 4 A3 sized pieces in a row with 23 x 13cm piece below each A3

This piece exhibits the different stages of overthinking. I wanted to convey how thoughts and feelings get progressively lighter. The bigger A3 pieces represent how thoughts begin to appear strong, and how they can easily over time almost disappear. One thinks the problem is bigger than it actually is. The smaller pieces in between each A3 show the feelings. With the use of strong colours such as, red and black I aimed to create a sense of fear and worry for these thoughts.

Transparency

Medium: Acrylic paint on plexiglas /

Size: 148 x 50 cm

This piece represents the feeling of transparency. Having moved every 4-5 years I learned that you should never be too bold, but you shouldn’t disappear.

The easiest thing to do is to put on a face. Each of these faces represents one of those ‘characters’ that I was in each school.

Through the Plexiglas I wanted to emphasise how transparent they are, therefore I placed a wooden piece behind the plexiglas. It seems like nothing, but yet there is a slight desire to be someone.

Self Portrait

Medium: digital image / Size: A3 poster

This piece is a self portrait. The line drawing was done by looking at my own reflection in the mirror at a certain angle. It shows the different perspectives of how I see myself. The colours in the background represent different emotions. Blue being sadness, red being anger, different shades of purple being joy. The reason for some lines being more defined than others is to show how I only show part of my emotions. Usually I don't express myself fully, and many emotions are kept to myself.

A Journey To My Identity

Medium: digital image / Size: A3 poster

This piece displays how living in different countries has shaped my identity. Parts of the line drawings are filled in with a grey tone, they illustrate the identity one gets when they were born. The different shades of pink and purple represent the pieces that get picked up along the way to form who you are today. The line drawings are all self portraits and each represents a different me, in a different environment.

Opposites Attract

Medium: digital image / Size: 84 x 38 cm two pieces

This piece is solely based on my experience moving from Serbia, to Germany. Moving to Germany was a huge change. The culture was different, and my feelings were different. Each face represents different experiences. As they are the same in both pictures the colour is what separates them from each other. In a subtle way they are opposite colours. The colours pink and purple to me present both fear and excitement. This piece represents the same individual: me in different experiences.

Curatorial Rationale

This exhibition is centred around the theme “Identity” specifically my own. There are many factors that can influence one's identity such as, media, one's surroundings, opportunities, and family. Together, these works represent the idea of what builds an identity and how I became the person I am today.

The main question of exploring the artist's identity was inspired by Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Still Film Collection. Having a strong interest in photography and the theme identity, I was intrigued by Sherman’s way of incorporating herself into other characters to express her as an individual. Her work made me question the different ways that I could incorporate this idea of expressing yourself as someone you're not. When starting to think about the theme of identity, media and beauty standards are the first thing that I would think of. How in this generation, one often tends to compare oneself to fashion magazines or to influencers on social platforms. Cindy Sherman took inspiration from movie characters and portrayed herself in these glamorous acts to display the diversity of stereotypes. Therefore my initial theme was exploring the power that other sources have on one's identity. However, while continuing the exhibition I leaned more towards the influences of my own identity, and how my personal experiences have influenced it.

Hence the works illustrating family open the exhibition. The works “Linnea” and “Under The Microscope” both represent the family that I come from, making a connection to how family influences my identity. While the exhibition's primary focus is made up of works with reference to influences of identity. The diptych entitled “Genders” explores the discussion of gender and identity, whereas the sculpture “Stuck In My Head” explores the influence of media and beauty standards. These pieces show more of a general impact of identity, but yet have a relation to what I have personally experienced.

The exhibition then proceeds with six artworks to reach deeper into the impacts of my personal experiences on my identity. The piece “Transparency” conveys how during the years that I have had to change schools, I have been able to hide my identity and become another character, much like how Cindy Sherman tried to communicate the diversity of human types. Similarly in the piece “Self Portrait” I show how only parts of my emotions are expressed and the rest is kept to myself. The two closing pieces are a representation of how being brought up internationally has shaped my identity. The piece “A Journey To My Identity” how growing up in 5 different countries has shaped me as an individual. Meanwhile, the closing piece “Opposites Attract” expresses my feelings towards two different countries, in this case Serbia and Germany. How it's the experiences and feelings that matter and how that has helped me become the person I am today.

This exhibition was fairly outspread by using different techniques to have a stronger visual impact on the viewer. For example, the piece “Under The Microscope” is a detailed piece, where the use of sand paste was used to represent the idea of how families go through rough times, but is connected through DNA. Moreover the pieces “A Journey To My Identity” and “Opposites Attract” are both pieces done digitally, to create a sense of diversity.

The arrangement helps connect the artworks as they all share a common concept of my own experiences, which helps them have different perspectives of the overall theme of “Identity”. The arrangement is set up to be like a timeline, where the beginning conveys family and how one is linked through DNA, which is followed by the idea of exploring surrounding factors like media, where the exhibition is then concluded with the influence of personal experiences on my identity. This forms a story or ‘journey’ to the exhibition.

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