EIRIN STØEN

Afterimage by Maria Veie:

This is an image still processing in my mind, which isn’t a photograph on its own but a documentation of a work I haven't experienced, but which I still try to interpret. Ivan Galuzin invited Eirin Støen for a one night only at Brown Dude Projectspace. I didn’t make it in time to Sørligata's old factory premises in Oslo, but I’m nevertheless bewitched by the work as a photograph. Støen had, with simple means, climbed to heaven in Perfect Strangers (2010). A ladder of untreated wood, lashed together by wooden ropes that looked as if they were from the mountains, leaned against an open skylight window. I don’t know wether the audience could actually climb the ladder, but Støen as an artist had all the power in the documentary process, and makes the view part of her work. In the photograph that was shared on social media, we see a sun-filled, classical city loft, partly filled with old furniture. Støen's image makes a radical shift. Some would say that she’s s just built a ladder of rope and branches and set it up against a window. But the genius move to me lies in the choice of angle. The light from the skylight dazzles the viewer, making you feel enveloped in total darkness. 

This contribution has been featured in a previous issue of Objektiv.