Secret Room, 2021

pine, willow, assorted planks, bucket, branches

The name of the work is derived from the Swedish phrase “hemligt hus”, which means “a secret house”, that is, an outhouse. The name refers to isolation and a closed, private space.

At first sight, Secret Room seems like a small and simple structure that looks like an outhouse. On the inside, the work is revealed to be a non-space. The structure has an identifiable shape, but it does not have its familiar function. Once you get inside the structure, there is nothing to be done but close the door and sit down. Secret Room is a space for voluntary isolation.

Once you take a seat, you start to experience a sensory world of another kind. Wood and pine branches hidden in a pail underneath the seat give a certain scent, and your tactile awareness is able to sense the single-element structure. Clean-shaped rays of light enter through the gaps in the horizontal boarding, forming a geometric-spiritual painting.

The closed space, shade and light fine-tune your senses to a meditative state and possibly, a spiritual experience.