ONNERSMITH. is pleased to present Maria Friberg’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery, “between solitude and belonging.” The internationally celebrated Swedish artist explores the themes of isolation, erosion and stability in her recent photographs and video work.
Friberg’s series of photographs, “duration” (2012-13) pictorializes the physical and emotional effects of technology. Posing figures in historic interiors, the artist emphasizes how portable electronic devices shape our postures and structure our physical interactions with one another. Her images suggest that, as we increase our ability to communicate globally and escape into virtual worlds, our capacity to interact with one another face to face erodes. Staging adults and children in settings redolent of faded splendor, Friberg underscores the distinction between a new generation, who is growing up entirely immersed in the digital age, and an older generation who, in their youth, experienced more direct forms of personal interaction. She visualizes the disconnect between the old and new ways of communicating in the distances that separate the children from the adults, as well as in the contrast between the currency of the technological devices and the ambience of the antiquated spaces their users occupy.
In Friberg’s video, “calmation” (2012), a man floats on his back in a swift river. The constant sound of rushing water underscores the relentless power of the river. Instead of attempting to escape, the protagonist struggles to hold his place against the current that threatens to sweep him away. The man’s efforts to keep himself afloat and sustain his position amid the flowing water evoke the struggle of the individual to maintain balance and stability amid social pressure, continual change and other forces in contemporary life.
Maria Friberg’s works are in the permanent collections of the following institutions: Moderna Museet, Stockholm; The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; Museo Fortuny, Venice; The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn; The Denver Art Museum, Denver; Göteborgs konstmuseum, Göteborg Fotomuseum Winterthur, Zürich; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC; Nationalmuseum, Stockholm; and The Tampa Museum, Tampa.