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On view from November 1 through November 30.
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Transformer presents Hej!, a storefront installation featuring works by eight Swedish video artists. Utilizing our storefront for interaction with audiences, selected video works will play on a 24-hour loop throughout the month, engaging the public through sidewalk presentation and viewing. This exhibition is presented in conjunction with Transformer’s 11th Annual Silent Auction & Benefit Party, with Diplomatic Chairs Swedish Ambassador Björn Lyrvall and Madeleine Lyrvall. In addition to this video exhibition, six of the eight participating Swedish artists will also have video work in our Auction, held November 22 at American University’s Katzen Arts Center.
This exhibition was developed in collaboration with Swedish-based Candyland, a peer non-profit art space in Stockholm. Andreas Ribbung, an artist and Founding Member of Candyland, nominated these eight participating artists for their exceptional work in video. Ribbung is also a Founder of SUPERMARKET, an international artist-run art fair in Stockholm, celebrating its eighth year this April. Ribbung works with art in the public realm, as a free-lance art advisor and project manager in Stockholm.
Hej! launches at noon on Saturday, November 1 with Aasa Ersmark’s Lunatic, and will continue with fifteen additional video works by Jessica Faiss, Henrik Ekesiöö, Lisa Jeanin and Rolf Schuurmans, Petra Lindholm, Ulf Lundin, Tina Nykvist and Isabel Theselius. These video works will loop continuously through November 30.
Swedish Video Artist Bios:
Aasa Ersmark is an artist and filmmaker based in Stockholm, Sweden. Working across sculpture and video installation, her work has been exhibited at The Modern Museum in Stockholm, Tribeca Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, Oberhausen Film Festival, Microscope Gallery in New York and the Gothenburg Art Museum among many others. Ersmark received her MFA from The Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm and grants from The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, The Swedish Film Institute, and The Royal Institute of Art among others. Ersmark’s video work, Mirror, will be included in Transformer’s Auction. Works included in Hej!: Lunatic, 5:42min, stereo, HD, 2012; and Saturn, 4 min, stereo, HD, 2011.
Jessica Faiss was born in Martigny, Switzerland, but lives and works since many years in Stockholm, Sweden. She is educated at the University College of Crafts, Art and Design in Stockholm and has since then participated in a series of exhibitions in Sweden and internationally. Faiss’ video, Surrender, will be included in Transformer’s Auction. Works included in Hej!: Desert, 5 min, 2012; and Escalator, 5 min, 2012.
Henrik Ekesiöö lives and works in Stockholm. His work includes photo, video, objects, paintings and performance. Using humour he is working with pop-culture stereotypes and theories taken from psychology, he blends everything into existential narratives often displayed as video-installations. Ekesiöö’s video, Torkel in Space, will be included in Transformer’s Auction. Works included in Hej!: Detective, 5 min, 2012.
Lisa Jeanin & Rolf Schuurmans
Lisa Jeannin was born in Uppsala, Sweden, and Rolf Schuurmans was born in Oss, The Netherlands. They are both living and working in the forest of Hakebo, Sweden and represented in Moderna Museet, Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Malmö Konstmuseum and many other collections in Sweden. Jeanin and Schuurmans’ video, The Great O, will be included in Transformer’s Auction. Works included in Hej!: A Tortoise & A Traveller, 5 min, 2009; and To Know, 2:30, 2011 (excerpt from larger project titled Hokus Pokus).
Isabel Theselius is from Lund, Sweden, and is currently based in Los Angeles, California. She recently completed her MFA studies in Art at University of California Irvine, and received her BFA at Valand School of Fine Arts in Gothenburg, Sweden. Working from first hand experience with themes such as mortality, desire and longing, Theselius creates phenomenological installations as well as narratives through video works using familiar places and people that are close to her as well as with unknown territories and complete strangers. In her projects she intentionally blurs the boundary between art and life, fact and fiction, embracing the illusory as an enriching part of humanity. Using humor or seduction as a tool to address difficult or obscure phenomenon’s she is inviting viewers to identify with topics often avoided, overseen or neglected. Works included in Hej!: Tonighted States of America, 01:50, animation, 2014; Robbery, 01:07, animation, 2009; and Lolita Drinks, 02:51, animation, 2008.
Petra Lindholm is a visual artist working mainly with video, sound and photography. Lindholm studied at the Royal University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm, Sweden. In her video work she forms a close connection between image and sound, using her own composed music and voice. She is interested in describing memories and depicting the passage of time through her video work. She has received numerous awards such as the Carnegie Art Award third prize for the video Until, which Lindholm produced while living in New York. Lindholm’s video, Morning Practice, will be included in Transformer’s Auction. Works included in Hej! Learning to Stay, 3-channel video loop, HD video, 2008; The Summit, 10 min, HD video, 2010; Empty Vessels, 10 min, HD video; and Iris, 7:20, HD video, 2006.
Ulf Lundin was born in Alingsås, Sweden and trained as a still photographer at The School of Photography, The Univerity of Gothenburg. He has exhibited in Sweden and abroad and currently lives in Stockholm working as an artist, primarily in the field of video and photography. ”I started as a documentary photographer and as such I used to look for the different and exotic. I came to a point where I realized that I didn´t have much to add to that discussion and tried to engage in subjects that was more connected to my own life. I also became more interested in the mechanisms of photography. I would say that my work is mainly about everyday life and photography.” Works included in Hej!: Station, 11 min, looped; and Bless You, 26 min, looped.
Creative Time Summit: Stockholm Screening
- Friday, November 14, 11am – 6pm
- Saturday, November 15, 12 – 6pm
Transformer will participate as a satellite Screening Site for the 2014 Creative Time Summit: Stockholm. Presented in collaboration with Public Art Agency Sweden. This year’s Summit will focus on expanded public practice, investigating uses and potentialities of art in the public sphere, with a focus on practices with social and political implications.
Exhibition Hours:
- This storefront installation will be on view from November 1 – November 30, 2014.
Transformer is located at 1404 P Street, NW. For more information visit www.transformerdc.org.
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