Annee olofsson biography channels
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Daniel Birnbaum
THE FIRST PICTURE BY ANNEÈ OLOFSSON THAT REALLY made an impression on me, The Mourners—My Last Family Photo, 1996, depicts the Swedish artist surrounded by her family. The image conveys sorrow and loneliness: six elderly people dressed in black, a young woman in the center all in white. It took a while before I realized she was wearing a polar bear costume, holding the animal’s head in her lap. Silly as it sounds, the image radiates dignity. The young woman is an outsider in many ways, a creature who no longer belongs to the group and must be sacrificed—or is it she who wants to distance herself from the crowd?
After almost a decade of exhibiting in Europe, Olofsson now seems to be getting the attention she deserves. In her most recent series of photographs, “God Bless the Absentees,” 2000—which debuted at Schaper Sundberg Galleri in Stockholm and is currently on view in the artist’s solo show at Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York—the sitters seem to meld into their immediate surroundings. In one photo, a bath mat’s shag pile seems to have crept up and covered a young woman’s pajamas; in another picture, a woman wearing a horse-patterned outfit is almost indistinguishable from the horse-
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Stockholm, Sweden
2011
(curated by Pia Kristoffersson and Estelle af Malmborg)
The exhibition, Anneè Olofsson – The Face of all your Fears, circles around the questions that lie closest to Anneè Olofsson´s heart. In these rather autobiographical pieces – and as suggested by its title – she challenges her own obsessions, fears and traumas. It is Anneè Olofsson´s hitherto largest exhibition in Sweden and several pieces are presented for the first time.
Her works deals with complicated relationships, family ties and power structures. It is about childhood and growing up, aging and death, loss and memory. Time as a concept runs like a red thread throughout the exhibition. What we encounter first is an excerpt from the Swedish author Arne Sand´s book Enhörningarna(The Unicorns) from 1965. In this book Arne Sand works with the idea of living life backwards, in reverse, an idea that fascinates Anneè Olofsson and in many ways serves as a key to her art.
The series, Will you still love me tomorrow (2004) concerns aging and transience. The seemingly crackled photographs of different women recall Renaissance portraits and western pictorial tradition, and they allude to the aging of both the women and painting; traditionally both have been objects of retouching of v
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BIOGRAPHY
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