scratching beneath the surface

Temporary Stabilisations is an art space run by Annie Johannson and Andreas Engman in Gamlestaden, Gothenburg. For five days in March 2024, they offered their space to me for use as an experimental site to explore the metabolism of painting.
The space did not host an exhibition; rather it transformed into my open studio, to which I invited bypassers, neighbours, people on their way home from work, or children on their way to the playground, to get into conversation with the painter (me), the painting, or to simply have a fika together.
I painted with the pigment Kassel Earth, exploring and imagining its transformative agency and talking about its unruliness.
The pigment operated as a time capsule for a history of painting beyond hegemonic perspectives and beneath representational surfaces. I approached my guests to contribute to the process of becoming-through-painting: inviting them to dig up future pigments and deliver them during the duration of the open studio, or the closing event at the end of the week.
Currently, I am transforming these gifted gatherings into pigments, which will become another layer of the painting during the public program of Speculative Gatherings in May 2024.
The painting is no longer a surface to be mastered individually but becomes a space of continuous transformation and collects traces of care.
Oil painting sparks speculation.

“Metabolism of Painting”, experimenting at temporary stabilisations, April 2024 

collected samples of “earth”,
contributions from temporary stabilisations, 
April 2024 

public painting process at temporary stabilisations which included besides the engaging with the pigment also conversations with visitors about its materiality, use, and behaviour.
One conversation opened up the aspects of possibilities of site specifitic investigations due to the city history of Gothenburg and the role of Dutch merchants.  

closing event; hosting and being with painting