Magnus Strandberg: Herbarium
Magnus Strandberg鈥檚 exhibition Herbarium at Galleria Huuto is like a collage that combines urban nature, vegetation, and materiality.
Herbarium is the second part of Magnus Strandberg鈥檚 exhibition trilogy. The first exhibition, Loitering, was on display at Galleria Uusi Kipin盲 in Lahti in late 2023. The exhibition series is based on the artist鈥檚 long-standing interest in the Taivalsaari area, located in Hietaniemi, Helsinki. The area is considered wasteland, and it represents a type of environment that is becoming increasingly rare in the center of Helsinki. Strandberg feels that the area, which is currently undergoing changes, reveals how fascinating weeds, thickets and other unplanned elements and phenomena can be in an urban landscape. They tell us about the importance of the uncontrolled and the semi-wild. While Loitering focused on the animals and people moving through the area, the artist has now turned his attention to vegetation.
The title piece, Herbarium, is a series of screen prints on plant-dyed textiles. The works have two overlapping layers of fabric, and the motifs blend together. Their representational nature has become abstract through the work process. Yet, they are linked to Taivalsaari as a concrete place, as the motifs and colors originate from there. Herbarium also shows how different experimental methods intertwine with observations, collecting, classification, and cataloguing. The working method resembles a scientific approach and reveals how artistic processes are at least as complex and laborious as scientific processes. Repliker i gult is a large textile installation in different shades of yellow, and it divides the exhibition space. Viewers can see through the work from the darker side, but not from the lighter one. Both in terms of its placement and striping, the work has been designed for the space, and it illustrates how Strandberg鈥檚 art is about spatial experiences and experimentation. Arboretum is a two-channel video installation that fills the corner of the exhibition space. The footage was shot in Taivalsaari during autumn storms. Strandberg has edited the video to form layers that depict the feeling of being at the top of a tree during a storm. Viewers also get to see how the invisible affects the visual experience, just like the visible elements.
In the exhibition, various technical and material solutions mix digital and material elements. At the same time, Strandberg alters the images and makes use of various printmaking and photography techniques, combining them with textiles and their materiality. The images change and intertwine, creating a connection to being out in nature and experientiality. The artist explores the boundaries of experience and reflects on whether personal memories and experiences of a specific place can be transferred into another material and space. Strandberg also addresses the fundamental questions of visual representation and explores when an image becomes representational and recognizable. In this regard, he is dealing with the same questions as the early pioneers of photography: when and how is an image created, and how does it materialize?
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Magnus Strandberg鈥檚 exhibition Herbarium at Galleria Huuto is like a collage that combines urban nature, vegetation, and materiality.
Herbarium is the second part of Magnus Strandberg鈥檚 exhibition trilogy. The first exhibition, Loitering, was on display at Galleria Uusi Kipin盲 in Lahti in late 2023. The exhibition series is based on the artist鈥檚 long-standing interest in the Taivalsaari area, located in Hietaniemi, Helsinki. The area is considered wasteland, and it represents a type of environment that is becoming increasingly rare in the center of Helsinki. Strandberg feels that the area, which is currently undergoing changes, reveals how fascinating weeds, thickets and other unplanned elements and phenomena can be in an urban landscape. They tell us about the importance of the uncontrolled and the semi-wild. While Loitering focused on the animals and people moving through the area, the artist has now turned his attention to vegetation.
The title piece, Herbarium, is a series of screen prints on plant-dyed textiles. The works have two overlapping layers of fabric, and the motifs blend together. Their representational nature has become abstract through the work process. Yet, they are linked to Taivalsaari as a concrete place, as the motifs and colors originate from there. Herbarium also shows how different experimental methods intertwine with observations, collecting, classification, and cataloguing. The working method resembles a scientific approach and reveals how artistic processes are at least as complex and laborious as scientific processes. Repliker i gult is a large textile installation in different shades of yellow, and it divides the exhibition space. Viewers can see through the work from the darker side, but not from the lighter one. Both in terms of its placement and striping, the work has been designed for the space, and it illustrates how Strandberg鈥檚 art is about spatial experiences and experimentation. Arboretum is a two-channel video installation that fills the corner of the exhibition space. The footage was shot in Taivalsaari during autumn storms. Strandberg has edited the video to form layers that depict the feeling of being at the top of a tree during a storm. Viewers also get to see how the invisible affects the visual experience, just like the visible elements.
In the exhibition, various technical and material solutions mix digital and material elements. At the same time, Strandberg alters the images and makes use of various printmaking and photography techniques, combining them with textiles and their materiality. The images change and intertwine, creating a connection to being out in nature and experientiality. The artist explores the boundaries of experience and reflects on whether personal memories and experiences of a specific place can be transferred into another material and space. Strandberg also addresses the fundamental questions of visual representation and explores when an image becomes representational and recognizable. In this regard, he is dealing with the same questions as the early pioneers of photography: when and how is an image created, and how does it materialize?
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