Black Sun
27 may – 24 september
he exhibition title Black Sun [Svart sol] is associated with the light phenomenon that occurs when large dense flocks of birds fly in the evening or morning sky and momentarily eclipse the setting or rising sun. The phenomenon becomes an effective symbol of the power of the collective, of the strength and potential of joint action and collaboration. Black Sun brings together a selection of works with common denominators linked to community, collaborations, and the never-ending fights for a more equal and sustainable society.
Johansson’s art explores contemporary and historical collective movements: labor and workers movement, the suffragettes, contemporary feminist causes, environmental movement as well as the many struggles for the future of the planet, including works that call for human responsibility and respect for all other living beings that inhabit this world. The exhibition includes earlier works such as Silvertungan, about the great 1969-70 miners’ strike in Malmfälten (Sweden), the decades-long struggle Save Kynnefjäll where Sara Lidman, for example, appears and talks about ”co-sense”, and works that highlight both the early suffragette movement and the current struggle for gender equality. The exhibition also includes new works, which can be seen as craftivism, such as textile collages, glass figures or the remake of the suffragettes’ toys. They are crafted contributions that highlight the power of micro narratives, materializations of the care invested in the everyday, a sort of burning energy that fuels the collective engagement.
In the newly produced video Searching for the Spiral, the artist’s alter-ego The Artist Mother searches for spiritual meaning and community in a world and time marked by multiple existential, social and political crises.
About the artist
Ingela Johansson’s work explores individual and collective experiences of history writing. She is interested in disseminating stories that have a subversive potential or that can create cracks in dominant official narratives. She uses testimonies, speech acts, archive material and objects as main source for her work. Johansson has exhibited widely in Sweden and abroad.
In 2010 she was artist-in-residence at Gasworks and Acme in London and in 2020 she was awarded a 5 year work grant from the Swedish Arts Council Grants Committee. Her work is represented in the collection of Moderna Museet, Södertälje Konsthall, Hallands Konstmuseum and Filmform. In 2013 she published the book: The Art of the Strike, Voices on Cultural and Political Work During and After the Mining Strike 1969-70 (ed. Martin Högström, Kim Einarsson), Glänta.
