When Shapes and Shadows Speak

Fragments from the depths of the past, such as memories from child­hood, archival material or traces in nature are redis­covered and retold. Colbengtson works mainly with screen printing and glass as a medium and uses portraits and land­scapes from old photo­graphs in addition to text in Swedish and Southern Sámi as a starting point for processing – not just an artistic sense, but also thera­peutic – and for conveying stories. He retrieves the photo­graphs from both private co­llec­tions and public archives that are related, among else, to racial biology research.

Colbengtson is known for his glass sculp­tures made with the cased glass tech­nique where images are transferred using screen printing and are encap­sulated in the glass. In addition, he exhibits a series of two-dimen­sional works where painting and photo­graphs processed through raster­ization are layered on both flat and bent glass- and metal sheets. The exhibition also shows several instal­lations where light, shadow and mirroring tell stories of invisi­bility and alienation that cons­tantly affects the individual, society and the culture.