Henrik Strömberg / Object amnesic: a compost manifesto
April 23 - July 2, 2022
Dorothée Nilsson Gallery
Potsdamer Straße 65
10785 Berlin
Dorothée Nilsson Gallery is pleased to present object amnesic: a compost manifesto by Henrik Strömberg. The artist works with the accumulation of materials, gathering of images, and the idea of transformation: from functions of information towards form itself and the shadow left in its wake.
Strömberg layers his works, at times literally, at times figuratively. What could be a shadow reveals itself to be a tree pressed up against a window, shaped by an invisible glass layer. Nature peaks through in a multitude of ways. The idea of the compost in its natural and metaphorical form continues all through the photographic works and in the video installation piece seconds away which refers back to Strömberg’s recent publication in collaboration with Jens Soneryd object amnesic: a compost manifesto which serves as a point of reference throughout the exhibition. As an image of a mask is placed upon graph paper, Strömberg collages a new reality that allows the found object to shine through in unexpected ways. Shadows become representations of the object itself, the imprint they leave ever-changing. Densely piled on top of each other, items beget new life through deterioration, decomposition, or recomposition. Layers formed over and around the objects that hold knowledge. How material adopts a new narrative when arranged with the unknown.
In the sculptural piece from time to time – every so often, the concept of the archive is expressed most fervently, the accumulation of items of knowledge, deconstructed encyclopaedias, formerly esteemed vessels of knowledge mutated to aesthetic form. The cut-out pages of books become material and are held upright by pieces of quartz crystal. Quartz vibrates when put under pressure, it keeps time, and it keeps track.
Henrik Strömberg (*1970, Sweden, lives and works in Berlin) works with the idea of metamorphosis, decay, and the transformation of materials; sculptural objects, and their photographic documentation, as well as the deconstruction and transformation of the photographic image itself. He received a B.A in Fine Art from Camberwell College of Art, UK, and went on to pursue an M.A in Photography from FAMU, Academy of Performing Arts Prague, CZ.