News
Text by Linda Fagerström
Here is a text by art critic Linda Fagerström to go with the art catalogue:
–
Collect, structure and trace. On the art of Joanna Thede
To collect, structure and trace. These are the three methods that Joanna Thede works with.
To collect, it takes time. It takes perseverance and determination. To structure, on the other hand, requires an overview and a sense of spatiality. To trace means to follow an inner voice, to search and be led by one’s longing to find and understand.
Joanna Thede’s works Recollections – Patterns and Years of Recollections (both from 2015) and Re-Trails and Re-Tails (both from 2018-2019) are clearly based on the methods of collecting, structuring and tracing. In such different materials as medicinal blister packages in aluminium, beach-found fragments in glass, metal and plastic together with braided hair – both synthetic and natural – the artist lets common and short-lived objects represent the existential dimensions of life.
Under what conditions does a person live, who is dependent on a medicine to survive? Why do we continue to poison the world’s oceans, even though the consequences are devastating? Can the status difference between natural and artificial hair tell us something about interpersonal hierarchies based on the colour of one’s skin and economy?
Another common trait in these sculptural installations is the strong impression of pattern, creating rhythm and motion. Simultaneously, a suggestive effect appears when a collection of uniform objects is joined in this way into one single, larger body. The eye thus forced to shift between, on one hand, seeing the individual part in the overall image and, on the other, grasping the large form.
In consideration of Joanna Thede’s readily use of already existing objects, her art can be described as a kind of collage. The meeting between smooth and rugged, elegant and disgusting, creates visual collisions, leading to the appearance of new possibilities of interpretation.
A hundred years ago, the artists calling themselves Dadaists and Surrealists sought precisely this kind of bewildering, contradictory experiences. In Stones and Bones (from 2020), she uses materials that evoke just these split feelings: smooth, sea-sanded stones next to skeleton parts and bone remnants from bird and fish.
The long, hand-knitted textiles in Green Reflections (from 2022) bring to mind the French-American artist Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), who in her textile sculptures and large-scale installations embodied memories and childhood traumas in yarn and tapestry fabric.
A similar approach is used by Joanna Thede in The Way Home (1998), where an old salvaged blouse is embroidered with blood-red lines to draw the traces of the artist’s travels. Simultaneously, the sewing thread becomes a frenetic bloodstream with the heart or home as a pulsating, radiant center – a reminder of the transience of life and, perhaps, of never stopping to collect, structure and trace.
/ Linda Fagerström, freelance art critic and associate professor in Art history & visual studies at Linnæus University, Sweden
–
Currently
Currently I am working on new art works, mainly in fishing line and wood.
Welcome to buy my new art catalogue for 200 + 72 SKR in postage cost! Please write me an email if interested at joannathede(at)gmail(dot)com
Book release “Reflections of Moments”
Welcome to the release of the new art catalogue “Speglingar av ögonblick / Reflections of Moments” on Friday October 27 2023 at 3-6 pm!
The address is HKP – Helsingborgs konstproduktion, Kvarnstensgatan 15, Gåsebäck, Helsingborg.
Come by for a few minutes or stay several hours! There will be drinks and snacks.
Exhibition at Konstnärscentrum väst, Gothenburg
Welcome to my exhibition at Konstnärscentrum väst in Gothenburg! The address is Erik Dahlbergsgatan 6. Documentation of previous public art works as well as art works from the past year is on display. Also my newly printed art catalogue is for sale.
Windings
Type of work: Light Installation
Materials: Fishing line, video projection, projector stand
Size: Approximately 1,70 x 1 x 1 metres
Year: 2023
Exhibited: Stadshusgalleriet in Laholm
Photo: Maja Kristin Nylander
About the work: Windings is a light installation made from 8 873 meters of fishing line in the sizes .40, .45 and .50 mm. The fishing line is crocheted by hand and wound together into a cloud-like object, which is illuminated with a looped short film of moving light. The projector is built into a plywood box. Fishing line is a grateful light material and I got the idea for the projection when the sun’s oblique October rays filtered in through the remaining foliage on the crocheted fishing line lying in a pile in the studio. Thanks to Karro Håkansson for partial help with crocheting and to Tony Petersson for making the projector stand!
Green Reflections
Type of work: Installation
Materials: Mixed acrylic and wool yarn knitted by hand, recycled wooden strips, cat hair, fishing line crocheted by hand
Size: 8 x 3 x 0,05 metres
Year: 2023
Exhibited: Stadshusgalleriet in Laholm
About the work: Green Reflections is an installation in five parts knitted from mixed acrylic and wool yarn and with small cocoons of cat hair wrapped in crocheted fishing line. The green parts are about 2.20 meters long and the blue 2.10-2.50 meters high. In the green ones, I’ve knitted the shapes with jagged edges and structure in the surface by randomly using knit and purl stitches higgledy-piggledy. The frames are made with recycled wood where the frames of the blue parts are laminated in strips to suit the organic shapes. The cocoons are made of red-blonde cat hair that varies between lighter and blonder, and the small nets for the cocoons are crocheted with fishing line.
The work title is a play on the word reflection, which can be both a physical reflection and a thought. In terms of the title, the work is also associated with the earlier Reflections – Memorising Monet as Monet’s work Water Lilies – Green Reflections inspired the design of that work.
Photos: Maja Kristin Nylander
Welcome to the exhibition at Stadshusgalleriet in Laholm 4/3-15/4!
Welcome to the exhibition “Vindlingar och spår (Windings and Traces) – knitted art works and light installations” in Stadshusgalleriet in Laholm running through March until April 15th.
Exhibition text: “The artist Joanna Thede works with installations where light often is one of the main materials. She also often recycles materials that are otherwise discarded or hidden away – such as trash, used blister packages and cut-off hair – that turn into narratives of our time and the traces we leave behind. For the exhibition at Stadshusgalleriet, she has also made knitted art works.
Joanna Thede has made several art works for public spaces, among others at The Preschool Vallmon in Laholm. The work “Spring Twig” from 2022 is placed indoors and consists of a light sculpture with leaf drawings of attached plexiglass pieces that can change colour in various rhythms, that the children themselves are able to choose.”
Here you will find the opening hours of the exhibition. Welcome!
Emil Olsson’s Art Grant by Malmo Konstmuseum
In June, I was awarded Emil Olsson grant by Malmo Konstmuseum. The grant reception was held at Malmo Konstmuseum in June 2022 with flowers to each of the award winners. The statement for my award was as follows:
Joanna Thede arbetar med installationer av återanvänt material. Det vi annars slänger eller gömmer undan – skräp, använda pillerkartor eller avklippt hår – blir i Thedes installationer berättelser om vår samtid och de spår vi lämnar efter oss.
Thede hämtar inspiration från skuggspel och ljusfenomen i naturen, samt de ljusa punkter som uppstår i mörker. Hon tilldelas Emil Olssons bidrag för sin känsla och förmåga att sinnligt materialisera samtidens flyktighet.
Translation:
Joanna Thede works with installations of recycled material. What we otherwise throw or hide away – trash, used blister packages or cut-off hair – in Thede’s installations become narratives of our times and the traces we leave behind.
Thede gets inspiration from shadow plays and light phenomena in nature, as well as the bright points that arise in the dark. She is awarded the Emil Olsson grant for her feeling and ability to sensually materialize contemporary volatility.
Vårgren (Spring twig)
Type of work: Public art commission
Commissioned by: Laholm’s municipality, Sweden
Place: Vallmons preschool in the city of Laholm in Sweden
Material: Light installation
Size: 250 x 100 x 35 cm
Year: 2022
About the commission: Spring twig in Laholm is an art work that is hand carved out of balsa wood in the shape of a branch. There are drawings of leaves on five plexiglass pieces fixated in the branch. An integrated led light make it possible to light the leaves in different colours. There is a DVD hanging from the branch like a drop, and a rainbow may be lit on the wall behind the Spring twig, which the kids can then see and try to touch. The art work is installed as part of an inner room where the children get together and play and relax in the preschool of Vallmon. The art work was inaugurated in June 2022.
Stones and Bones
Type of work: Installation
Materials: Stones with natural holes and skeleton pieces of fish and bird, fishing line, light setting
Size: Approx. 6 x 5 x 4 m3
Year: 2021
Exhibited: SPARK gallery in Malmoe, Sweden
About the work: Stones and Bones contains of approximately 30 braids of fishing line in which stones and skeleton pieces of fish and bird are braided in and are hanging from the ceiling. For many years, the stones and bones have been gathered during long beach walks. All that is gathered has been eroded by sand and waves: the bone bits are scraped clean and the stones have natural holes in them.
The work is shown with slowly pulsating light settings in three phases, giving it an impression of breathing. At the same time, the alternating shadows on the walls are displayed in different nuances as well as in multiple layers.
Here is a short video of Stones and Bones light installation:
Here are some photos by Cecilia Sering from inside and outside of the showroom:
Light lab @ Landskrona Museum
During Bästa Biennalen 2021 in the South of Sweden, Joanna Thede will be holding light laborations for young people at Landskrona Museum. There will be light installations made by the artist to look at, and mini torches and recycled everyday material to experiment with between 1 and 4 pm on Tuesday the 2nd and Thursday the 4th of November. During the evening of “Kulturnatten” on the 5th of November 6-8 pm, the artist will be present with some of her light works.
Recycled Time
Type of work: Painting in 4 pieces
Materials: acrylic and waterbased oil paint on hardboard
Size: 36 x 28 cm each piece
Year: 2010 + 2020
About the work: Acrylic and water-based oil on hardboard, this series of paintings was begun in the 1990’s. The second layer was painted in the early 2000’s and the third layer – of shadows of branches in direct sun light – was applied 2020. The times and memories through the decades are inherent in the series, and the paintings have now moved to private art collections.
Stråk (Trails)
Type of work: Public art commission
Commissioned by: Uddevalla municipality, Sweden
Place: Källdalsskolan in the city of Uddevalla in Sweden
Material: Print on glass
Size: 313 x 304 x 5 cm
Year: 2020
About the commission: Stråk in Uddevalla is an art work, printed on glass by PrintGlas in Stockholm. The art work is installed as part of the main entry at the leisure building at the school Källdalsskolan. The school with the new art work was inaugurated in September 2020.
One part of the commission contained working with pupils, and in some way re-use their material in the finished work. The pupils got the task to write down what they really like doing in their free time, except for anything related to a screen. Their contributions were inserted as elements in the pattern of the local map, forming the art work. The pupils’ own favourite spare time actions are now imprinted into the building of the leisure centre, where many of them will spend some their spare time.
Solo exhibition @Hässleholm kulturhus, Oct 12 – Nov 16. 2019
“Recycled Tales and Trails”
After several decades of production, Joanna Thede’s solo exhibition displays art works most often made in recycled materials. At Hässleholm’s kulturhus, several new installations will be presented, of which one is containing donated hair from inhabitants of Hässleholm.
”In my works, I recycle both materials and contents of things that are otherwise discarded, thrown away or hidden. With the conscious use of daylight and artificial lighting, everyday materials are turned into installations where the unexpected, skew and frail are made visible.”
Autumn programme at Hässleholms kulturhus. Information in Swedish about the solo exhibition on page 8.
More info at www.hassleholmkulturhus.se
Opening May 18, Kunst på Kryds at Marienlyst castle, Elsinore in Denmark
Welcome to the opening of Kunst på Kryds at Marienlyst Castle on May 18th at 2-5 pm!
The exhibition runs until May 30th daily at 10 am-4 pm.
Exhibition “Re-Tales” in Gnosjö March 7 – April 5
Welcome to the opening of “Återberättelser / Re-Tales” at Första Rummet, Gnosjö Library, on Thursday March 7th at 5-7 pm. The exhibition is open every day from 10 am to 4 pm until Friday April 5th.
Participating in “Metropolis: by Light” September 14th-23rd in Malmo, Sweden
Welcome to Metropolis: by Light in Malmö, Sweden, opening on the night of the 14th of September!
An outdoor light installation will be exhibited in Slottsparken during 10 days. This will form part of the section the Artistic light together with installations by 4 other artists: Carin Pleininger, Ann Böttcher, Åsa Persson och Pontus Ikander. Furthermore, there will be around 40 various light installations in the areas of the City Light, the Way of Light and Place-a-light – the latter with light students.
More info in Swedish can be found here
Solo exhibition at Klippans Konsthall in October
Welcome to my solo exhibition at Klippans Konsthall, Saturday October 14 – Sunday November 19!
The title of the exhibition is “Kura skymning”, in English “Huddle in the dusk”. It will show a number of art works, mainly light installations, which change with the day and night light. Please come and visit first in day light and then later during the darker hours! It is also possible to stay over a period of time to experience the changes of light within the works.
Opening hours Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 10 am-7 pm, Wednesday 10 am-4 pm, Saturday 10 am-1 pm, Sunday 1-4 pm. Welcome!
“Vessel of Reflection” at HX Festival in Helsingborg
Welcome to visit my work at Helsingborgs Konstförening’s exhibition at HX Helsingborg City Festival! On the 3rd of August, my art installation Vessel of Reflection will be exhibited in the space of Helsingborgs Konstförening.
Refractions
Type of work: Commission
Place: Northwood Children’s Hospice in Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Material: Adhesive fourcolour print
Size: 160 x 118 cm
About the work: Refractions is a digital photography of a light refraction made with a torch and a DVD onto a white wall indoors. The photo is then digitally reworked into a pattern for a contravision print, produced for and installed onto a double glass door at Northwood Children’s Hospice which is a children’s hospice in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The installation of the contravision print has the function of a blind: making it impossible from the outside to see through the windows, at the same time letting full day light through and keeping the view intact from inside the room.
The contravision material worked well for 2 years, when it had to be removed as it was worn down by strong sun light and heat.
Documentary photos: Ruth Nesbit
From the outside:
From the inside:
Speaker at TAVA16 Light Conference in Tartu, Estonia in October 2016
TAVA16 Light Festival will be held during one month in Tartu, Estonia. As one of the main speakers, my art work together with that of other inspiring light artists will be shown at the Light Conference which will take place on the 21st of October.
More info from the Tartu Valgus website: “The festival will be opened to the public on Friday, 21 October 2016 and the opening events will run the entire weekend till 23 October. In addition, there is a sideprogram featuring different activities and events (e.g. theatre to cinema, concerts, everything that has to do with light, activities based on citizen initiatives, etc.) lasting from 13 October to 13 November 2016.”
Cheapart Art Fair, Thessaloniki, September 10-18
On the 10th of September is the opening of CHEAPART Art Fair in Thessaloniki, Greece, where a series of 12 images titled “Blister squares” will be on display. Opening on Saturday the 10th of September and running for a week unto the 18th.
Sketching competition @ Öland’s folkhighschool in Sweden
Participating as 1 of 4 chosen artists for the sketching competition of 2 artistic commissions to be installed in the dining area of the Öland’s Folkhighschool, including the Art school of Öland. Hand-in date of proposals is at the end of June, 2016, and we may know the winning proposal already in the beginning of July.
Multipel exhibition @ Gallery Ping-Pong in Malmoe, June 1st – 13th
The digital print of the photography “Remedy for a Tree” is part of the group exhibition of Mediaverkstaden and some of its member artists which is on display 1st – 13th of June 2016 at Gallery Ping-Pong in Malmoe.
Exhibition at wip konsthall in Årsta, Stockholm
Between 21st – 29th of November, Blister Sisters have their exhibition “Recollection: Patchworkers” on display at wip konsthall in Årstaberg in Stockholm. All the art works that were shown in molekyl gallery in Malmö are here, as well as a new large site-specific day light installation with the title Patterns.
Breaths in Glass
Type of work: Installation of 35 individually blown glass bubbles
Size: Each bubble has a diameter of 7 – 15 cm
Content: Within our collaborational project Breaths, artist Solveig Lindgren Inderbitzin and I made a new branch: Breaths in glass, together with Incendi glasblåseri and its owners, the glass artists Helena Dunér och Espen Jensen, in the small village of Höör in Skåne in the south of Sweden. Together, we invited two local 4th grade classes and a group of adolescent refugees, who blew glass spheres with us. Every participant made one bubble each, which continues to bear the form and traces of their breath. Thus each bubble has a personality of its own in all its imperfection, together forming an ephemeral cloud.
35 of the bubbles stayed intact through-out the cooling process and were installed from the ceiling at the library of Höör. They were shown together with a monter with the remnants of the cracked spheres and a photo presentation of the glass-blowing activities.
I and artist Solveig Lindgren Inderbitzin activated Breaths in Glass as a continuation of our installation series “Breaths” for the art festival Bästa Biennalen in October 2015, which was arranged by Moderna Museet Malmö.
Installation at Höör Library – photos by Lennart Bengtsson (including the one above):
Interactive art work in progress – photos by Anna Bokström:
Photo during the opening at the library: Joanna Thede
Dold konst / Hidden Art
2015, October 17 – Tivoliparken / Sjöcronas park, Höganäs
“Dold konst / Hidden Art”, Art in the Park, a major public exhibition with 140 international artists has now moved from Slottsparken in Malmö to Tivoliparken / Sjöcronas park in Höganäs, Sweden. The opening is at 1 pm / kl 13. Welcome!
Beepositive Light Festival in Vilnius, Lithuania
I participated in the Light Festival Beepositive by Beepart on the 10th of October 2015 with two light installations: Kura skymning och Vessel of Reflection.
Light Installations at Höörs cultural night September 18th
On the 18th of September, it was time for Höörs kulturnatt where the light installations “Vessel of Reflection” and the newly made “Kura skymning” (Huddle in the Dusk) were shown.
Dold konst / Hidden Art
2015, June
“Dold konst / Hidden Art”, Art in the Park, a major public exhibition with 140 international artists is shown at Slottsparken in Malmö, Sweden. The exhibition will then move on to Höganäs in October.
Recollections – exhibition at Molekyl Gallery, May 8th
Recollections – Blister Sisters will have our first exhibition at Molekyl Gallery in Malmö, opening on the 8th of May. The exhibition is prolongued until the 6th of June. A performance will be held at 2 pm the same day.
More info at Molekyl galleri.
Sketching Competition for Public Commission in Borås, Sweden
In November 2014, the sketching competition against 4 art colleagues started for the round-about of Skaraborgsvägen in Borås, Sweden. In January 2015, the result of the competition will be announced.
Earthstar, Johannelund by Catrin Andersson
Photo collage: Patrik Bengtsson/Catrin Andersson
On the 28th of November, there is an inauguration of the public commission Earthstar in Johannelund, Stockholm by artist Catrin Andersson. These outdoor geometric sculptures began with a workshop where I had the opportunity to dig out parts of the ground areas with kids from several daycare centers nearby. Photos of the process can be seen scrolling down the link on the webpage in Swedish konstiparken.wordpress.com/tidsplan/
Photo: Catrin Andersson/Joanna Thede
Råå Kallbadhus – Front Gate
The front gate of Rååbadarna’s open-air swimming-baths was inaugurated in relation to the refurbished Batteritorget in Helsingborg on the 30th of August, 2014.
The gate is designed in collaboration with Architect SAR/MSA Inger Thede. The figure shows the form of the stream through Råå as it were around the year of 1800. The material is perforated metal, powder-lacquered in a dark grey-blueish tone, and is made with the help of Sånna Smide in Kvidinge.
During the night time, there is a silhouette of light tracing the left side of the figure. Strings of LED lights between the perforated metal and the figure are installed by Råå Elektriska.
More images in day light:
Group exhibition: “Ene eller anden side” – Artist Run Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark
May 9-24, 2014: Group Exhibition “Ene eller anden side / Ena eller andra sidan” (One or the other side) at Gallery OK Corral in Copenhagen, Denmark, during the festival Artist Run during the weekend May 9-11. The exhibition includes the 4th stop of the collaborative project Breaths with artist Solveig Lindgren Inderbitzin.
Co-exhibiting artists are Clara J:son Borg (SE), Arngrímur Borgþórsson (IS), Elias Björn (SE), Maja Gade Christensen (DK), Jonas Palm (DK), Jakob Kudsk Steensen (DK).
Here is an article in Kunsten.nu about the exhibition.
Light in the City in Tartu, Estonia
May 7-9, 2014: Portfolio showing at the conference on Nordic Light in Tartu, Estonia. Particpants are among others Lighting artists in the Public Space from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia and Iceland.
Opening “Decade”, group exhibition @ Glasgow Project Room, Scotland
Opening on Saturday February 22nd between 6-9 pm. Open one day only on Sunday 23rd 12 am – 5 pm.
Welcome to Glasgow Project Room in Glasgow!
Opening @ Form/Design Center in Malmö, December 7th
Opening multipel.nu, group exhibition at Form/Design Center in Malmö on Saturday the 7th of December, 12 am – 5 pm.
Welcome!
Talk @ Malmö University, November 27th
On Wednesday the 27th of November, I will hold a talk about my art courses for schools and hospitals for the public as well as the teacher’s programme at Malmö University. More information is found in Swedish at Bildämnets dag.
Serpent’s Tale
September 2013 marked the deadline in a parallel sketching competition for the Night Entry at Nya Karolinska Solna – the vast building area for a new hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, where I was one of two light artists participating. The initial image is from the sketching material: a life-size prototype showing one of three different light functions with its LED light string lit up inside.
Underneath is an image of the possible mirror effects in the material, which is made out of plexiglass that has a foil on one side making it seem to change both colour, light and mirroring effects due to by which kind of light the material is affected. The material also has different structures on one side, one with smaller pyramid forms and one with honeycombs. The mirror effect underneath is due to the prototype being in shade, reflecting the surroundings in direct light in the material.
The commission was won by David Svensson.
Here the prototype is placed in direct light, which makes the more transparent nature of the plexiglass thread forward.
Underneath is an image of the reflections given by the prototype when direct light bounces off the material surfaces onto a shaded wall.
Artotekare
During 2013, I run the project Artotekare for Region Skåne (the municipality of Skane) which includes activating the lending of art works in the various art libraries – Artoteken – to the separate hospital rooms for children and youngsters. The activity takes place in the children’s and youth wards at the University Hospitals in Helsingborg, Kristianstad, Lund and Malmö within the Region Skåne in the South of Sweden.
The project also includes creative workshops with the patients and their families. In these workshops, my art piece “Vessel of Reflection” – part of Artoteket – is shown as inspiration for the patients to make their own mobiles out of CD:s.
The image shows a mobile of a CD made by a patient.
Ljusur (Light Dial)
Light Dial is a collaboration project made in Stockholm during 2012- 2013. A series of site-specific light installation were developed in four private homes belonging to people previously unknown. The photo above is from the Light Dial Enebyberg at night, taken by Ulrika Hektor 2013.
The aim of the Light Dials has been to research possibilities to rediscover former and develop new experiences of time through using changing day and night light instead of schedules and digits.
In Enebyberg, in the northern area of Stockholm, a giant sundial was built partly from a branch from an apple tree, which was coated in different blue colours together with engaged family members of the household and placed outside the main window of their living room. Indoors, the window was clothed in a plastic material made out of minuscule circular tubes, which reflected direct sun light by day as well as an artificial LED light string (programmable iColor Flex IMX) by night.
The project has received funding from the Foundation of Innovative Culture, which serves under the department of Culture in Stockholm, Sweden.
The opening brought stunning sun light and interesting discussions with a lot of nice people; friends and neighbours of the persons in the household.
