Pernilla Zetterman: Too far away – too close

Vernissage 30 September 2020, 17-19 at Nybrogatan 11 in Stockholm.
The exhibition runs from 30 September to 4 November 2020.

In Too Far Away - Too Close, Zetterman offers a spatial design where different themes are intertwined into a whole. Untitled No. 11-16 is a suite of photographs of objects used to control and regulate horses and in this way Zetterman visualises a system of rules she seems to be drawn to and long for. She often looks for a structure, something to follow and adhere to in her work. A series of framed objects become clear symbols for memories and for a series of painful goodbyes. What we see are framed tassels with thorns from horses that have meant something special to Zetterman throughout her life in beautiful boxes with brown wooden frames. The titles of the works are the names of her missing horses, which makes the works even more powerful. The presentation of the works also shows a strict order.

In the Stay and When series, Zetterman starts with old family photographs and memories and then reconstructs scenes from the past in interaction with current observations. The relationship between the past and the present is present in parallel in the stagings and here the human body is in focus. Feet that we otherwise do not see under the table show tension and hands that meet show the closeness of bodies but also the distance of bodies. Many of Zetterman's works depict a strong closeness, especially in the artist's relationship with the horse. When the animal is absent, as in these two series, there is often a sense of distance. Perhaps the distance is forced. There is always a desire to have an unattainable control. Something binds, limits, isolates.

Turn Down Centre Line is an installation consisting of two black and white video loops. In one work, two girls perform a training session meant for horses. One takes the role of the horse and the other drives her with a whip to repeatedly walk around or jog tied in a circle. It is a game and yet training with great seriousness in a strange combination. In the second part of the work, the training takes place in a group and with hobbyhorses. In Exercise No 4, an adult woman is tied up, again with a rope attached to her waist. The themes are recurring but Zetterman gives us very different visual adventures in his works.

Pernilla Zetterman on the exhibition: "I work with the heritage and the behavioural patterns that have shaped me into who I am - being stuck in a longing for security, in a pattern generation after generation."

Verken i utställningen inkluderar Zettermans monografier Behave utgiven av Hatje Cantz Verlag (2009) med text av Urs Stahel (Fotomuseum Winterthur) och Turn Down Center Line utgiven av Kerber Verlag 2017. Design och koncept för Turn Down Center Line skapades av Sandra Praun och Oscar Guermouche.

Written by Linda Bergman