THE DAILY PHOTOGRAPHOne photograph, (from work, and life, in progress) premieres here every day, and appears during one day only. |
HOWLING & HUMANS (2021)Some time ago, I came across, a book titled The Seasons, written in the 18th century by James Thomsom. The texts in this book were created by translating, deleting, adding, combining words and writing new ones, inspired by the poems I found. I started photographing inspired by these texts, and looked for connections between the words, and things I saw, in my time, in my life. I cruised between the fall of kings and gods, roaring floods, a beauty that may be stupid in the heart, drowning people, an I, a we, a conversation with a you, the memory of a first derailment, the small life going on, and the big one, the apocalypse, a rattling eye that hold what you look at in the threads, a howling child, and a song. The project was carried out with support from the Swedish Arts Grants committee. + 30 in a (Playing) limited edition Documentation of the book and parts of its photographic series
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Documentation from ”Howling & Humans” exhibited at Tredje våningen, Gothenburg 7-29/5-22. https://www.instagram.com/helgaharenstam/channel/
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SEMESTER / VACATION (2021)
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A Sunrise Drive-by (2023-Ongoing)
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IN WAITING FOR WHAT IS TO COME (2018)
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SUNSHINE & SHADOW (2017)Sunshine & Shadow is an autobiographical story in twenty chapters. These chapters may for example include a fireworks factory, a funeral, a shooting, a broken camera, or a found note. Each chapter begins with a short text . These texts are reminiscent of those that one can find in the old adventure novels (whose purpose was to describe what kind of grand events that will happen to the heroes of the adventure, in the next chapter). In the adventures of Sunshine & Shadow, the chapter that follows is told through photographs. The words in the texts visualizes scenes and stories, before you see them, that creates a play with associations between the images and the texts. The texts builds up expectations of what is to expect, which, when not met, confuses, and forces the viewer to fill in the gaps, be a detective, and build stories and connections of her own. Sunshine & Shadow challenges and plays with the idea of reality, chronology and historiography, by creating a loosened narrative where events and thoughts from a period of life (translated into photographs and texts) falters freely between different times, between the actual world, inner visions, everyday life, fairy tale, construction, sunshine and shadow. |
MEMORIES FROM A STRANGER (2015-2021…) The project continues… |
A BOOK ABOUT A PICTURE / EN BOK OM EN BILD (2015)
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VALENTINE´S DAY AND OTHER SCENES (2015)
This work is based on a collaboration between me and Vega Houses retirement home in Gothenburg. The project had the form of a study cirkle in photography that took place during six Wednesday afternoons in spring 2014. The photographs in this project are a mix between my own photographs and photos that the participants have taken, or brought, to some of the occasions we met. |
STORIES FOR AN 87 YEAR OLD LADY (2012)”Stories for an 87 year old lady" is an art project based on photographs and texts published by Journal. It was selected for Hasselblad Center’s exhibition Published – Photo Books in Sweden, Gothenburg Museum of Art 2018. This project has also been exhibited as soloexhibitions at CFF (Center for photography, Stockholm 2012) and at Kulturhuset (Stockholm 2013). It has also been part of the groupexhibition "Dreamscape" at Bohuslänsmuseum (Uddevalla, 2013). |
A DEMONSTRATION OF THE SIGN OF THE HORNS (2010)A demonstration of the sign of the horns is a story in photographs and the following text:I took this series of photographs on a snowy afternoon in December when the light was strange and we were out playing in it. Stina-li wrote my name in the snow by walking it. I followed her without knowing what we were writing. After that, I walked a heart with an arrow through it and she followed me. This series is presented as a book with sculpture (multiple) in a limited edition of 13. |
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THE SOCIETY (2008)The title of the work draws its inspiration from an actual place. I have been looking for, and constructing, environments, scenes and events that are based on memories from the small community where I grew up. This place has got a name, but usually it is simply referred to as ”the society”. I see the work as a puzzle of pictures that deals with the borders between the documentary and the staged, the real and the unreal, the past and the present. It is also a story about a rural area that is becoming increasingly abandoned. |
ARTIST STATEMENTI left the house and took a walk into town to have plaice at the restaurant of the local supermarket, Ica Indianen. From this visit I remember his face, and those of the members of the dance band on the notice board. I think that this text is a good description of my working method, which often involves to select and to construct meanings, associations and combinations, using the stories, objects and events, that comes across my everyday life- as starting points. My works usually ends up in the form of photographs or texts, and sometimes they become installations or social experiments/cooperation’s. I then present these works through books or exhibitions. /Helga Härenstam Back to menu |
CV Helga Härenstam
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