Mattias Härenstam

Cannibalistic Solitude

Oak root mounted in the ceiling, lamps, chandelier crystals, tufts of human hair and an oriental carpet, 2011. Approx. 230 cm in diameter.

Cannibalistic Solitude was shown as part of the exhibition 28th February 1986 at Akershus Art Centre, Lillestrøm, Norway in Feb - March 2011 and at Galleri 54, Göteborg / Gothenburg, Sweden March - April 2012.

(...) In the second, much darker room, hangs the sculpture "Cannibalistic Solitude" - a majestic tree root which has been decorated with “brothel-style” lamps, sweeping tufts of hair and crystals. This brings to mind literary works such as "Alice in Wonderland" and TV shows like "Twin Peaks", where the line between dream and reality is vague.(...)
Excerpt from a review by Sara Arvidsson published at Swedish online artmagazine Konsten.net 12.04.2012.
Translated by B.R.
The full text is available here or as pdf-download (in Swedish) on the right.


(...)BR - The following work, the sculpture Cannibalistic Solitude, is for me even more cryptic and open to interpretation. It conveys an eerie feeling with the large root in the ceiling with crystals and little lamps like a bourgeois chandelier, but also with tests of human hair scattered over it. For some reason I came to think of the scene at the end of von Trier's Antichrist where a wounded Willem Dafoe crawls into a dirt hole to hide.

MH - Cannibalistic Solitude is a more intuitive work. But I think that it in a way builds on Closed circuit through a relation to the "subterranean". In the video the camera continuously takes us under ground, and here we have to look up at the root in the ceiling, also in a way placed below the ground.

BR - So we're trapped in the land of the dead.

MH (laughs) - Well actually, I thought of the sculpture as a kind of "voodoo-antenna" to communicate with the dead.
(...)
Excerpt from an interview with freelance writer Ben Rolfsen, published in online artmagazine Måg Issue 3, March 2011. The full text can be read here or måg online here.