Dark White
- An exhibition by Sara-Vide Ericson
OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY OCTOBER 28. 2016. TIME: 17.00 - 22.00
EXHIBITION PERIOD: OCTOBER 29. - NOVEMBER 19. 2016.
Bright white soaked fabric hanging from a wooden pole. Illuminated almost on the verge of combustion.
Violent white light. You narrow your eyes to protect your vision and realize that there is
a woman in the river lifting the wooden pole with drenched fabric. She is wearing a white shirt
or dress, wet from the meeting with the red river, it clings to her breasts that are clearly visible
through the fabric. Her face is covered by the long wooden pole with the five white garments.
Suspended above her head like a weightlifter. It must be really heavy. The soaked fabric. The
wooden pole. The weight of water. What is she doing in the river? This is clearly not a regular way
to clean clothes. Is it some kind of ritual? A strange pagan Baptism? A punishment? A peace
offering? Her posture is strong. She is in control.
This is the tableau in The Dark White Redemption, oil on canvas, 250 x 190 cm, 2016, a large
new work that you encounter when you enter Sara-Vide Ericson's new exhibition Dark White.
It is a starling painting. It arrests you. It pulls you in. It gets under your skin. You will not forget that
you have seen it. Sara-Vide Ericson is a terrific technical painter, you see this on closer inspection
of her work, but in her new body of work her obvious skill takes a back seat to make room for
a performative practice. Where Ericson earlier dreamed or imagined scenarios and would revisit
them to photograph them with a model before translating them into oil paintings - she is now performing
her paintings. She is that woman in the river with strong shivering arms raised above her
head, cold, tired and victorious. She can taste the iron water in the red river and you can feel that
in her new work.
The new body of work is visually arresting. 18 paintings and one large drawing that engage the
human state of mind, light and nature. In Ericson's paintings neither are pretty in the traditional
sense of the word. Nature is a place where you get hurt if you are not careful. The vast Swedish
woods will swallow you and wolves, bears and worms will disperse of your remains. The humans
in the works and woods are engaged in a seemingly ritualistic behavior, a physical form of psychotherapy,
where feelings, dreams, moments are enacted and reenacted. The white light is a
recurring theme in every work - it takes on many meanings and positions. It illuminates, radiates,
provides, it gives and takes power, it burns, it is harsh and even violent, it is life and death.
Sara-Vide Ericson was born in Sweden in 1983. She graduated from the Royal Institute of Art in
Stockholm in 2009. She now resides and works in rural Hälsingland where she was also born and
raised. She has recently exhibited with Galleri Magnus Karlsson (Stockholm, 2016), Swedish Art
Now! at Sven-Harry's Art Museum (Stockholm, 2016), Abertz Benda (2016, New York) and Norrköping
Art Museum, (Norrköping, 2016). Dark White is Sara-Vide Ericson's second solo exhibition
with V1 Gallery.
We look forward to seeing you.
V1 Gallery
More information:
www.v1gallery.com
