About Love Song

Hansson´s pictures show a stumbling fascination with the travesty of an everyday life. The vain attempts to catch time as it passes has always been a central aspect of tradition in photography. So have all efforts to give subjective vision a form.

As Hansson adds elements to the images the altered picture could easily disorient the viewer. Instead the pictures appear strangely familiar. Somehow, the pictures address the difficulties of seeing life as it is,in this very moment. As if the photos remind us of how we, in grand scheme of things, tend to miss out. Still Hanssons pictures sets both a subtle humoristic as well as a narrative tone.

Hansson dosen`t like to think of his work as collages, instead he thinks of them as mute songs. As referring to the dynamic structure of a song, the altered picture takes on new meaning. The apparent disorder comes to mind and the consistent theme becomes time rather than subject. As every track changes the direction of the album, so does each picture.

The series, consisting of both old and new pictures, follows it´s own independent timeline. Almost as if the time passed can be traced in the in-betweens.

Nordin Gallery

Marcus Hansson
Love Song 15 november – 15 december

A Different Language

The newly opened Nordin Gallery, in Stockholm, presents Marcus Hansson – an enjoyable acquaintance in the autumn dark. Nordin Gallery makes an ambitious and brave debut, with a focus on photography, video and installations. The establishment, located at Tulegatan 19, will most likely become well-visited.

Hansson’s pictures are mostly collages or montages made out of photos, which are then photographed. Technically, they are suggestive of the fragmented photographic experiments of David Hockney and of the photographed pictures of Richard Prince. What distinguishes Hansson from the others (partially because of a file containing several more pictures from the “Love Song” series) is the possessiveness in his exploration of a peculiar and very original vision.

There is consistently something inexplicable, mystical and often hideous, about the pictures; They depict a plausible everyday existence, which has been processed in fragments, then stuck back together again. Dreams? Bad dreams? Looking at Hansson’s pictures is like floating in the in-between.

Today’s art scene is characterised by psychological and emotional themes, but it is seldom that it strikes through as honest and touching. When it comes to Hansson there is no doubt. Nothing is explained, but the visual hunger and dynamics featured in “Love Song” implicate a possessed soul in need of ventilation, rather than a conceptual construction. It feels like a privilege to be allowed to look into someone-else’s psyche in such an exposed way. Beautiful? Sometimes. Scary? Most often. Original? Most definite.

Carl Abrahamsson
Tidningen Kulturen