Malin Pettersson Öberg

2007, 4 screenprinted textile banners, b.t. 400-600 x 135 cm, master project at the Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm

My graduation project takes the history and location of the art college as its point of departure. The surrouding area, Hägersten, has been shaped by Ericsson and the emergence of communication technology, and the idea of the Swedish welfare state and suburb. Ylva Eggehorn describes the postwar ambiance of the 1950’s in her book Kvarteret Radiomottagaren, as she experienced it during her childhood. Through a poetic language and a narration grounded in the personal experience, she describes the spirit of the times more efficiently than many analytical texts. I transferred quotes from the book to banners on the façades of the college, and in this way applied the language and strategies of advertisement as well as political resistance. An intimate material was inhabiting a format and placing within the daily, public environment which today is mainly assigned to commercial messages. The texts could be perceived as voices from the past, and they enabled a temporal perspective and comparison between two periods. Aesthetically, the banners referred to home-made ”do-it-your-self” manufacturing – yet carefully detailed, and to demonstration banners, old typefaces, newspaper headlines and promotion signs.

The work was presented in a solo exhibition at Wip:Konsthall in Stockholm (October 2007), an art space and studio building in Årstaberg close to Hägersten, to where I was invited by curator Karolina Pahlén. I also showed one banner in a solo exhibition at Galleri Hörnan in Falun, Sweden, 2008.

 

 

Konstfack Graduation Show 2007