The visually remarquable – David Svensson and Nina Bondeson

”The Embracement” by David Svensson is executed with black car paint on aluminum plates. Together with the surrounding room we are mirrored on the shiny surface. It resembles an altarpiece with opened doors on both sides, a kind of triptyk, like Matthias Grünewald´s Isenheim altar from the early 16th century. But unlike that there are absolutely no depicting elements, no obvious story. Instead we get a reflection of our own here and now. Our feelings for the moment becomes part of the piece. An embracement, as the title says, it may be welcome or not, give contemplation or maybe point out something that we want to repress.

Nina Bondeson´s painted bath tub in the middle of the room is in its expression quite the opposite of David Svensson´s work. Her artistry often deals with taking an object, which would not be regarded as art, and giving it a new meaning using images and texts. In the piece ”La Lingva” (the language) a bath tub has been painted, laquered and tilted to a standing position so the expression becomes totally different. The painting, mainly on the inside of the bath tub, can relate to medieval sacred art. We see two persons, a female and a male. The man, who sits down, holds a fish and the woman holds a plunger. Towards her face, a horselike animal approaches. An electric cord goes into the animal´s ear. It seems to continue by their tongues into the woman´s head, out through her ear, and onwards through a symbolic machinery to the man´s hand where it seems to try to leave a message. But his glance is blank and uncomprehending.

Bondeson thinks of the visual as a language equal to the verbal, textual, and means that the interpretation is individual and based on one´s own experiences. In that way the piece can tell one story to one person and a different one to another, where both can be as ”true”. The role of the audience is therefore as important for Bondeson´s piece as it is for Svensson´s.