Anna Fröman: THE WORLD HAS ENDED

Everything has changed here deals with place and memory through painting and video, based on objects and rooms. The paintings show indoor and outdoor spaces containing memories, houses and objects left behind when leaving home. The works deal with looking into the past, reaching near and far. Reminiscing about the home, objects and place brings to the surface the stories associated with them. 

The video work brings to life the maps of memories shown and drawn by my father. Instead of objects, the work shows memories of a lost home. The work deals with how we remember and how different things can appear in relation to reality. When we left our home, I dreamed of going back there. I told my father about it:

  – I had a dream where we returned to live in our old house.
My father answered:   – Me too.

We have a longing and a desire to recreate a memory: to try to return to an inner and outer landscape, a place that no longer exists. To find what was there, where we can no longer find. 

I am interested in the expression and experientiality of loss and memories on both a personal and social level . THE WORLD HAS ENDED deals with loss and fragility. It captures the present moment, the loss of my father and the end of the world. The title of the work was inspired by Eeva Kilve’s Karelia-themed short story Elämä evakkona, at the end of which the father disappears.

 “[…] does it matter now that the world has ended? ” (Kilpi 1985:341)

One of my father’s shirts served as the initial inspiration for the piece; the deeply private can expand into a universal expression. Videos and oil paintings show significant objects that accompanied the great events of life and death.