"The dream laboratory"
"The dream laboratory" is a project where we collect nightly dreams at different places. Lott Alfreds and I made an exhibition about dreams at library Plattan, Kulturhuset in November-December 2010.
DRÖMLABORATORIUM 2010 http://www.kulturhuset.stockholm.se/default.aspid=3191&refid=36145&ptid=
From
the book ”Sossial skulptur-A collection of Dreams From Ali Demi Prison” by Lott
Alfreds and Charlotte Åberg http://libris.kb.se/bib/12094638
"Social sculpture, dreams and gender issues"
In January 2007, Lott
Alfreds and I took part to a preliminary examination with employees at Ali Demi
Prison in Tirana, Albania after an invitation from Refraction association. In
October 2007, part one of the art project ”Social sculpture, dreams and gender
issues” was initiated at the prison with workshops. Part two of the project,
carried out in February 2008, consisted of an evaluation, a movie workshop,
documentation and follow-up of the work of the employees and interns. In
november 2010 the artists book "Sossial skullptur-a collection of dreams
at Ali Demi Prison" was released at the Culture house in Stockholm. The
book was presented 24 march 2011 during the exhibition "1+1 Life and
love" at the National Museum in Tirana.
”Next morning we’re with the next group
in the same room. Three male policemen, a female guard, two social workers and
a psychologist. We start the workshop by telling them we want to try to reach a
dialogue, to lift the conversation, make visible and elevate that which always
takes place but which no one really notices or thinks about.”
SOCIAL SCULPTURE; DREAMS AND GENDER ISSUES 2007-2008
SKISS projects 2005-2006
In the SKISS
project I worked together with Lott Alfreds on dispersing structures through
role-play, dream-stories and with the inspiration of Joseph Beuys ”Social
sculpture”. During “the upside-down day” a working place at
“Serviceförvaltningen” were turned upside-down during a day in autumn 2005. The
co-creators of the project got into different roles, and looked closer on the
social environment and the special language used. The purpose of this was to
break the pattern that you are used to, to give more space and air to a more
vivid and creative environment. Lott and I continued to work with the staff at
an eldercare in Botkyrka municipal in the project ”Dream garden” 2006. We asked the
staff at the eldercare to share their nightly dreams with us, while we were
building a winter garden together.
SKISS 2005-2006
White Collection
The work ”White
Collection” deals with the fact that female clothing and the fit that matches
the female body does not get as much space as the male uniform in society. In
the art project “Artist Clothing”, created by Ulrika Gunnarsdotter during fall
2004, I have contributed with a collection of doctor coats matching the female
body. The project, in where one looks into the relation between fashion and
art, gave me many ideas, but eventually I decided to look more into the uniform
fashion at hospitals. The doctor coat is still a masculine symbol and
distinguishes what is visible everywhere in society; that the masculine form of
something is the standard. The strict, square-shaped doctor coats were
transmitted into haute couture, to something pleasant, as a tribute to the
hard-working women in the health care sector. Despite the fact that much has
been done in health care to improve the equality between the sexes, there still
is a rest of male hierarchy, a men’s club, and a room inaccessible to the most
highly educated female professors. The so-called glass roof, where you cannot
go any further, is still an existing fact. That is the reason why it felt
important to, in a direct way, try to change the visible attributes. With small
means I tried to dislocate and change the look upon the female representation
in the health care sector.
In a wider
sense, the project glances outside the gender roles, and sees humans as group
species. The clothing collections touch the questions concerning how the human
can be unpersonified in the group. In a group you no longer need to take
responsibility, and can easily hide behind a façade. The white doctor coat is
to many people similar to a feeling of safety, but to others as a symbol of
power.
ARTIST CLOTHING 2004 http://www.artistclothing.com/ac/?p=55
