TAB Event - Ylva Ogland "She Who Shows the Way -Falling Asleep"

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At Shugoarts
Media: Painting, Installation

Shugoarts is pleased to present the first solo show in Japan for Ylva Ogland, an artist born in Sweden in 1974 who made her stunning debut in the New York art scene just last year.

Ogland's paintings and installations often originate in elements of her own and her family's experiences. Yet, while they are born of an interest in the personal, they also contain markers to a host of dualities that can be far-reaching and even disturbing: wholesome values versus taboo; orthodox art history versus subjective, often abnormal occurrences; decorative presentation versus controversial content.

This exhibition, the title of which comes from two classic icon motifs; Hodegetria and Dormition, consists of a series of paintings about mirrors and another painting series that arose from the artist's experience of her father’s big sleep.

As part of these works, Ogland revealed to Shugoarts the existence of an alter-ego, Snöfrid (meaning "gentle snow" in Swedish), who lives inside the mirrors of Ogland's art. It was Snöfrid who responded to some questions from Shugoarts recently.

Tell us about your works to date and your new works for this exhibition.
Snöfrid: My name is Snöfrid, I have been asked by Ylva Ogland to answer these questions. I’m her twin sister and I live in the mirror world. I have the same experiences as her, but from a different perspective – from my view in the imaginary world – and I don’t paint, so I’m free to speak about these things. We meet where fiction and reality become one, in situations that are connected to us and to the imagination and to the history and to art history.

The subjects of your artworks are often related to your family.
Snöfrid: Try, through the little world, to connect to and mirror the big world, and beyond that, the imaginary world. As Oskar Ekdahl, one of the central characters in Ingmar Bergman’s film Fanny and Alexander says, “…My only talent, if you can call it that in my case, is that I love this little world inside the thick walls of this playhouse, and I'm fond of the people who work in this little world.

"Outside is the big world, and sometimes the little world succeeds in reflecting the big one so that we understand it better..."

While your works emerge from private issues, it doesn't appear that you are simply translating them into artworks. How do you select subjects and turn them into art?
Snöfrid: Experiences serve as a ground where the very personal and subjective can become a reflection of any viewer’s experiences. What is coming, what has past and what is present. The relationship between the real world and the art objects and what they are and what they are representing – if they are representing anything.

Tell us about the exhibition of your new artworks, including Oracle.
Snöfrid: She Who Shows The Way – Falling Asleep
Where past is always present,
Where future is always present,
Where present is always present.
Where the imagination is as real as the reality.
Where the reality is as imaginary as the imagination.

[Image: "Traveling Oracle" (2008) oil on canvas 81.3 x 68.6cm]

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