Although Cecilia Edefalk has primarily focused on painting, and on sculpture in recent years, her film Venus is nevertheless entirely in keeping with her oeuvre. Edefalk is sharply aware of details and coincidences in our surroundings, and these visual experiences form the starting-point for her works. The film in this exhibition was created with a number of stills taken in 24 hours at the summer solstice. In a slightly overgrown garden stand an empty bench and a statue of Venus. In just over five minutes, which is how long the film lasts, we experience the dramatic effects of light and shadow on the scene in the course of the day and night. The Venus figure recurs in a painting, albeit in a different colour scheme and degree of abstraction, representing a link to the other works in the exhibition. The felling of a large birch that grew outside her house gave rise to a new series of works. As a grieving process after a lost relation, Edefalk has made loving casts of parts of the tree and painted ”eyes” on them like the ones on the original tree trunk, and greenery like that which once enveloped the branches. The proud birch is also portrayed in full length in a large painting with a smaller pendant work. By repeating themes and subjects in a variety of styles and materials, our perception of them shifts slightly. In the works shown together here, she deals with our close relationship to nature and light.
Photo of Cecilia Edefalk taken by Ewa Rudling.