Neighbours/Murmurs is the first British solo exhibition by the Finnish photography artist Martina Lindqvist featured in The Photographers Gallery between October 2014 and The January of the following year. It is the combined photography of two different bodies of work' Neighbours, shot over 2013-2014 and the newer series Murmurs, shot in 2014 alone.
Neighbours.
Neighbours was inspired by a remote area in Finland from where Lindqvist professes to originate. This area has been blighted by the fact that many of its inhabitants have left it to seek larger accommodation in larger cities and towns, leaving their family homes hollow and empty. Lindqvist's aim was to take these failed attempts at settlement and evaluate the tension between nature and inhabitant.' The desolate landscape features small and abandoned houses nestled in thick beds of snow, and set against a greying sky. The photographer has digitally manipulated her images so that the expanse of land around them is enlarged, emphasising their isolated nature by eradication any form of contact or closeness to surrounding life. This epitomises the way that she feels about the desolation and dereliction of her once home, not only indicating her feelings about her familial roots, but also evoking a strong icy aura of loneliness to capture the character of this once lively civilisation.
Neighbours.
Neighbours was inspired by a remote area in Finland from where Lindqvist professes to originate. This area has been blighted by the fact that many of its inhabitants have left it to seek larger accommodation in larger cities and towns, leaving their family homes hollow and empty. Lindqvist's aim was to take these failed attempts at settlement and evaluate the tension between nature and inhabitant.' The desolate landscape features small and abandoned houses nestled in thick beds of snow, and set against a greying sky. The photographer has digitally manipulated her images so that the expanse of land around them is enlarged, emphasising their isolated nature by eradication any form of contact or closeness to surrounding life. This epitomises the way that she feels about the desolation and dereliction of her once home, not only indicating her feelings about her familial roots, but also evoking a strong icy aura of loneliness to capture the character of this once lively civilisation.
In this image we receive a clear inclination of this isolated and mournful setting. The House in this photograph is very strait and neat, however it retains clear signs of ageing. The windows are broken, and the paint peels, but the house still appears to be ordered in some sense. When beginning this series, Lindqvist expressed that, although she was born in this town, she never felt as though she was from there, having lived in Britain and Sweden her whole life. She wanted to rediscover the roots of her family and in doing so took the series Neighbours. She wanted to express hoe "paradoxical" it felt that the residents of the village would completely abandon it for a new life just as she was attempting to find her way back there, and thus this extreme contrast of order and neglect arises within the photograph to visualise the confusion felt, and represent the abrupt way in which people left for seemingly no reason.
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This image is a little different from the first. The first one emphasises the unusual abandonment of the city by giving no evidence for the residents reason for departure, leaving it with a slightly sinister and alien undertone. This one however, appears far more natural, adhering to the usual associations that arise when we picture abandoned buildings. This house has fallen into disrepair, thus making it understandably abandoned. However this could have occurred after the residents departed, emphasising the sadness that, what was once a capsule for a treasure trove of family moments, is now an icy, hollow shell, meaning nothing to anyone. This calls into question whether or not it is the locations that we inhabit that retain the most importance, or the memories we have of them. Perhaps this implies that the miniature worlds we create for ourselves are merely figurative, with no visceral presence, so can therefore be erected anywhere.
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This portion of Lindqvist's series can be comparatively linked with the ideas around 'miniature worlds.' The fact that she has entitled the series 'Neighbours' is perhaps the most obvious of these comparisons as a neighbouring livelihood to your own can often be seen as a miniature world in itself, as indeed, can your own; forming a continuous string of miniature worlds. However This title was intended as an ironic pun, as not only does Lindqvist not see any of the residents as her neighbours, there are in fact no neighbours living there. Thus the work also embodies another miniature philosophy, that of questioning what makes a miniature world necessary. It looks upon what was once a thriving, though small, society and mourns its loss as the inhabitants moved on to find 'bigger' lives.
Murmurs.
The ideas expressed in the series 'Murmurs' are similarly linked with the theme of miniature worlds, raising questions that can be thematically linked with that of Neighbours. Murmurs was a series of 'vanities' (a symbolic art form, particularly associated with still life) photographed against the wallpaper of her sick grandmothers bedroom. Throughout her life Lindqvist's grandmother had been obsessed with the idea of 'keeping up appearances,' and presenting herself in what she considered to be the 'correct' way. She was constantly concerned with what her peers and neighbours thought of her, but now that she suffers fro Alzheimer's disease she can no longer maintain her image, nor can she even remember these past acquaintances, and struggles to recognise her family. The images depict a series of flowers placed in cardboard vases, captured as they wilt from lack of sustenance. Lindqvist designed them to reflect "upon the futility, and ultimately failure, of maintaining one’s image in the face of death." This links in with the project theme 'miniature worlds' in that it illustrates the life of a woman obsessed with the way she was perceived in her own. Now looking at a representation of her, confused and alone, we see the difference between objective reality and subjective experience as we are shown what happens when this existence is stripped away. This 'subjective experience' almost embodies a version of a miniature world and again raises questions about what is considered important, ant the way that differs from being to being. |