PHOTOGRAPHY 2018- 2020

Since both my parents were professional photographers back in Finland where I grew up, I’m a photographer almost by default. In recent years, I have been interested in superimposing photographs both old and new to create a sense of the liminal space between inner and outer reality. Multiple exposure becomes a token for the surreal encounter between imagination and perceived reality and points to the transformative processes of the mind. I don’t use photoshop: instead I enter into a playful dialogue with a simple app on the iPhone. It’s an unplanned journey: the restriction of my freedom tends to take me on routes I have not anticipated. Only a few images incorporate visuals that aren’t originally my own: these are photographs of my grandmother who was a prima ballerina at the famous Le Ballet Suedois in Paris in the 1920s. All other images that feature people are sublimated instagram selfies.

My work takes inspiration from the paradoxical ‘ontological loops’ that define the matrix of reality, and in my mind, consciousness itself. Contemporary consciousness research that likens our reality to a computer simulation, suggests that external reality does not exist independently, but is really a product of complex processes of perception. Of course, the brain is also part of physical reality, so it’s interesting to ponder the extent to which the brain is helpful in achieving this goal, and where it simply fails to explain the origin of such complex computations (in science, this is called the hard problem of consciousness). Without going into scientific speculations about the nature of reality itself, I’d like to propose ways of observing and imagining the points of connection between internal and external reality and the metamorphoses that occur in this most ambiguous and unattainable realm of reality-construction. On the one hand, this work, like any work of art, is a product of my mind. On the other hand, I have attempted to depict the mind itself by offering glimpses of its processes and whatever contents my mind happens to be focusing on. You might say, that the images resemble still frames from a movie of the ongoing processes in the headspace. The work is an ongoing experimentation with the idea that the mind can be made the most visible, not just by representing imagery of the mind through mind-reading devices, as some researchers and artists are attempting to do, but by using its most powerful tool, which is the imagination. This is a visual form of meta-analysis. How can the mind, which is busy dealing with the outside world, also perceive of, and describe, itself?

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TERRAFORMING THE SELF (2018)

‘Terraforming the Self’ (2018) is a photographic project that investigates the self-explorative function of Instagram selfies by taking them to an new level of self exposure. Through the layering of multiple photographs (i.e. double exposure), I have sought to express the reinvention of self through transformational processes, and offer a window to an idea of self-identity that goes beyond that of the physical body.

The origin of the project’s name is the scientific proposition that other planets can be made inhabitable through the artificial induction of a climate. Not only do I find the idea of humans as creators of a twin planet a fascinating prospect that could be helpful to the survival of Earth, I also see it as a metaphor for the future self. Rather than seeing the possible colonisation of another planet as an escape from our responsibility for Earth, I see potential for increasingly higher forms of creative and scientific innovation. Yet for a brighter future to be possible, it is really the narcissistic ‘Planet Self’ that needs to be terraformed first. A new mental climate becomes an idea of a new self.

Using personal photographs both old and new (usually about 3-5 per project), the all the images have been produced on an iPhone. Nine basic filters for double exposure have been used as a way of creating impressions of the dreamy world of the inner self, and no other ‘trickery’ has been employed. As a metaphor the chaotic nature of evolution, chance has been made to play a part. In the tension between the world of inanimate technology and the virtual world of the mind’s eye, a new world and a new idea of self emerges. It’s a new identity that is not based on the body and its condition, but on the invisible inner self and its expression in the visible world.

‘Terraforming the Self’ is a project (2018) that investigates the self explorative function of Instagram selfies by taking them to a new level of self exposure that reflects inner change and transition.

I have appropriated the Instagram style selfie with the intention of bringing to light a complex inner self that transcends the confines of mere physical appearances. Although it’s natural to seek to know oneself through the observation of one’s body (and this is made increasingly easy and fascinating through technological advances), to find ways of grasping the inner world and an idea of one’s hidden identity, is a much greater task. The hidden realm of introspection (the observation of mental processes) and interoception (the experience of internal states of the body) is notoriously elusive. Through the layering of multiple photographs, I have tried to find a way of objectifying the hidden workings of the internal self that lurks behind the solid facade of the external self, and highlight its propensity for change and transformation. 

Photographs traditionally freeze a moment in time, and mental and emotional states can only be hinted at. By superimposing various abstract and representational photographic ideas on simple selfies, I have sought to represent the complex and creative associations that mark the ever changing nature of the processing mind. In the process, I have also asked myself questions about my own invisible inner identity, and how to best align it with the limited means of the visible world.

The title of the project suggests that every human is on a quest for a greater sense of identity, and that we must all fully understand the implications of ‘Planet Self’ in order to create a new climate that sustains life. While dealing with polluting ideologies of the past and finding solutions to the problems we’ve created, we are forever reinventing ourselves. From this perspective, the cliched and apparent narcissism of Instagram selfies can be seen in a more forgiving light: we are all on a quest to understand who we are and what we wish to become. We are forever seeking mirrors in which to reflect our idea of self.

The images average at 29.5x29.5 cm and are printed onto high quality photo paper with high quality ink.

Please see Instagram @tightropedancer66 for exercises in this vein.

Read my essay on consciousness and self in the section ‘Abstract work on paper 2018’.

TERRAFORMING THE SELF (SERIES):

OTHER (2018):

MANIFESTATION (2019)

Manifestation I-IV (2019) is a series of photographic works that explore ways in which accidental occurrences coincide with conscious agency to produce new states of form and being. While I quite literally create my work in this way, my intention is also to visually suggest it. I see the manifestation of potential (i.e., revealing something hidden), as an interdependent, dynamic process of destruction and construction.

Liquids that have boiled over on my stove and cracked glass are real life accidents that have turned into a speculation about the way destruction and construction are so interdependent that it's often hard to tell them apart!

THE STAGE (2019)

The stage is a series of photographs with an element of digital collage. I have used old photographs of my Danish-Finnish grandmother Edith von Bonsdorff, who was an acclaimed modernist prima ballerina and choreographer from 1919 onwards. She worked with some of the great avant-garde choreographers, artists and musicians of her time and was a lead dancer in the one and only Dadaist performance, Relâche, in Paris and the USA in 1924. It was choreographed by Francis Picabia and the music was by Eric Satie. By staging her dance poses in surreal cityscapes entirely based on the superimposition of my own photographs, I have created an impression of the paradox of performance.

On the one hand, Edith was photographed on stage while deeply immersed in her own inner world, seemingly oblivious of the observer. On the other hand, I have placed her in a contemporary environment of my own making in a way that gives rise to an ambiguous impression of the space around her. In some of the work, it looks as though she is reflected in a window, while simultaneously part of a dreamlike cityscape outside. Because she’s looking away rather than into the camera, it is as though I have taken her place, albeit with the uncanny ability of watching her in a way she could not. Her external reality seems to reflect her inner world, but it’s reimagined by myself. I should add that as a proponent of modern dance, she might have appreciated my attempt at a rather surreal posthumous dialogue!

There is an ambiguity as to the identity of the observer, which is further enhanced by the fact that this work will also be seen by other people. The work becomes a contemplation on the many faceted nature of our perception of the inner and outer world. The double exposure photography reflects the mingling of these two aspects of reality. I do see the world as a stage: we act out our parts in life as though we were indeed staging a performance in the theatre of life. It’s the ability to withdraw from external reality and deliberate through inner imagery and thoughts, that allows us to objectify our experience and learn from the roles we play. Ultimately, one may ask how authentic a person can truly be, and how the process of developing an identity becomes an exercise in choreography. Perhaps we are reinventing the self a lot more than we even realise...

OTHER PHOTOGRAPHY (2019)

MIND STUFF (2020)

In this work, I have layered photographs to express how my perception of external reality becomes an internal experience of the imagination. Some of the photos were taken in Aberystwyth before I was involuntarily subjected to multiple major surgeries, as well as the necessity to shield because of Covid-19. Others were shot right outside my door and from my window. For instance, the trees and the surreal take on a cemetery are part of the views I enjoy in my home environment. The overall work nevertheless expresses the way I perceive of reality in a deeper sense, and it includes rather than excludes the actual workings of the mind that creates a concoction of reality and then tries to replicate it. You can photograph the effects of a storm, or the consequences of death, or places you’ve visited, but you can’t easily express the nature of such elusive phenomena and experiences without resorting to the tools of the imagination. But then you can also look at your images, memories and the process of the imagination, and make something of all that, as well.

Physical restrictions due to a chronic health condition have compelled me to invent an uncomplicated way of working. I superimpose my photos on an iPhone in creative dialogue with a simple digital algorithm. I try things out and play rather than set out to control the outcome. Despite the relaxed  approach, the layering transforms simple snapshots into complex imagery that feels intentional, personal and true. The method reflects my belief that limitations can encourage an expansion of the mind, but also, that technology can become an extension of the mind. There’s a simplicity in all this that actually reflects a complex computational process of observation and meta-observation where the mind is trying to get hold of itself and not only see what it produces, but also what it is.

My pieces represent the ambiguous, yet stratified, workings of the human mind. Past, present and future coalesce in my headspace in a paradoxical way: on a positive note, memories of beautiful places co-exist with an appreciation of my immediate surroundings. Yet all the while, the tormenting fear of never ending isolation and the eerie atmosphere in the world at large, sets the actual emotional tone. In addition, the forces of nature that battered our homes earlier in 2020, and the stillness of death that surrounds us, all form part of a general need to cry and let go. 

Please read more on my blog.