STUDIES NEARBY – SOFT POWER. ANNA LINDERSTAM & LISA GRIP

There is tenderness, play and pleasure but also breaths so close they burn and an underlying threat of violence and danger. Tangible as a knee in the back that presses the body into the grass. Subtle and poking like a soft arm that at once suffocates and cradles tenderly and still. Someone carries and someone gets carried, someone clings and someone holds on. In the ambivalence and tug of war between the needs, the motives linger. Scenes are exposed and stylized for close scrutiny.

Through what is, Anna Linderstam seeks to capture what is not. The frozen imprint of movement as opposed to the stillness of death, the presence of life even in the deepest of rest, when consciousness so long as it goes on searches for hubs and anchors. A visual examination of the truly unimaginable: that lives can end, relationships are broken, closeness turns into distance. With a distinct print, the two artists shape reality according to their own will and also relate to each other. The conversation is confidential and in the interplay between the voices, the questions are deepened and the perspectives broadened. It is a study at close quarters, with integrity intact.