Svea Vikander

gest(n)ation: playlist for youtube film festival

2009-12-03T10:47:00.000-08:00

My friend chris galanis (http://www.chrisgalanis.com/) hosts a monthly event at the studio. 'maybe dick' is a youtube film festival -- curators are invited to present 20 minutes of video, the only restriction being that they are directly taken from youtube. Last sunday, I curated a playlist called 'gest(n)ation.' Initially, I had been looking for videos of animal birthing, but through the wonders of the 'related videos' sidebar, found all these great clips of pregnant people. I started to think about the class differences that appeared in the videos (yuppies take two photos a day, every day of their pregnancy; young single moms from the mid-west coyly mention their baby registry at Target.com) as well as the social roles one fulfills in being a mother (the pregnant man and the 're-born' dolls). And of course, like a good little artiste, I followed my long-standing interest in the medicalization of human bodies. The videos are linked below; the most interesting ones are probably #s 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 15, 20 and 22.

1. a very pregnant female:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qImgB-hhtK0

2. 36 Weeks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN_D5j3V9nI&feature=player_embedded

3. Jennifer's First Pregnancy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txNHgpCPRdc&feature=player_embedded

4. Smitty Baby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfpIO9QuUEk&feature=player_embedded

5. Pregnant Clubbing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyykwcjepCI4

6. Baby Moving Inside My Belly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7qVJiYBlbo

7. The pregnant man:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYX7ACuTBTY

8. Medical Animation of Human Birth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xath6kOf0NE

9. I'm too young to be pregnant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVPmAbbvrzE

10. Medical guru, 4 months:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSmVxh4MM7Y

11. In labour yet can't get enough:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOlqw9ARjAU

12. Geek getting lap dance from drunk pregnant girl wearing a wig
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm6xZPTm5Xc

13.Pregnant lap dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZDb8Whvfjs

14. NAME MY MINI LOP DOE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2C5ZKhPY1A (CUT BEFORE VIDEO GETS BORING AT 3:40)

15. I'M PREGNANT!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw-PtazGkZM (CUT BEFORE VIDEO QUALITY DETERIORATES AT 2:45)

16. Isabella's ultrasound:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5j7eaCEZJA

17. Newborn baby J'dub:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BArLP18pgk8

18.Cry smile cry smile cry smile cry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGWO91lmW_w

19. Special Reborn Technique Encyclopedia Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjEbdQU8Gjo

20. My fake baby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klmhNSu2ZbY

21. Reborns--Removing Pain
thttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jznf2RLbQDc

22. Ethan laughing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXXm696UbKY

what's new, ice queen?

2009-11-09T21:44:00.000-08:00

I've been lax with my posting here for oh, maybe the last two years or so, but I'm going to stop. I mean, start.

Posting. Soon. Pretty things.

But in the meantime, here's something I've been working on lately: blocks of coloured ice (dyed with paint, blood, coffee, tea, juice, whatever I have on hand) hung from the ceiling, embedded with associational objects (medical supplies, medical images and coins, feathers, leaves) and left to melt, dripping their dye and objects into receptacles surrounded by white fabric. It's all a surprise, in that the objects within the ice become exposed through its each diminishing layer, and the stain patterns on the white fabric are created slowly, through melting and dripping -- a process both messy and inevitable, and one I cannot control.

They're about the body and narrative and health and phenomenological loneliness. They take a helluva long time to make, are very heavy, and extremely messy. They occupy my freezer, thereby forcing me to eat left-overs I forgot I ever had('nt eaten). They are pretty when the light shines through them and they leave nothing remaining at the end. They are not for sale (they are not the selling kind).

Here's the first one, an installation at studio béluga. The show was called 'as in a hollow tree' and was part of nestling, an event series we put on, working with issues and ideas about nests, family and home. This particular block of ice is a contemporary re-telling of the Greek story of Alcestis, Queen of Pharae, who willingly died for her husband. It's heavy...

But I manage to install it without dirtying my dress.
That will come later.

It drips while other parts of the as-yet-uninstalled installation sit tight in the background:

...It has some seriously creepy things hidden inside it:

And this is the receptacle the ice drips/objects fall into. An established video art critic came by and told me that she found it really disturbing, that it was, to her 'completely the abject'. Thanks! I said, meant.

The second was for The Happiness Project, a multi-media site installation brought together as part of Pop Montreal. Based on Charles Spearin's album of the same name, which is actually a wonderful project in which he interviewed his neighbours about what happiness meant to them, and made their speech into heart-breaking-warming-but-still-very-listenable songs. http://www.myspace.com/charlesspearin. The challenge was to take one of his musical pieces and translate it into something visual, in a room in an apartment. The song I got (and love) is called 'Vanessa' and is the story of a young deaf woman's experience of acquiring a cochlear implant through an invasive surgery. It allows her to hear for the first time.

Here are some guests, looking suspicious:

I made three blocks of ice every night for 4 nights, installing them each day. This is one of the babies (the headband-like image is an antique hearing device):

They drip into receptacles like this. Since the blocks are white, the stones are there to give some contrast:

This is light, shining throught it. The piece really changed with the sunlight throughout the day and into the night:

And here's the most recent. It's based on the journals of Emily Carr, Canadian eccentric, artist and writer extraordinaire. I've been reading 'Hundreds and Thousands', her diary from some of her most productive years. For an ornery, celibate loner, she certainly has a sensual bent to her writing. She never stops talking about nature.

This particular ice-block is not the prettiest of them all, but then, neither was she. She was earthy. This is pretty earthy. It has leaves. The striation along the side (below) is a result of my method of freezing each piece layer by layer, so that I can embed the objects and lots of string to carry its weight:

This is Emily Carr's receptacle. After one day of exhibiting, you can see the discolouration around the basin -- beginnings of a very beautiful pattern made by the brown water drips that I now have hanging on my wall:

abandoned?

2009-07-07T07:17:00.000-07:00

these are photos from the warehouse across the street. more photos on my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sveavikander/sets/72157619912637937/

the factory is my new favouritest place in the world. we're giving a drunken tour of it this friday:
http://studiobeluga.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/jump-the-fence/

studio béluga

2009-06-30T20:51:00.001-07:00

...is my new baby. super cute. http://www.studiobeluga.wordpress.com

our first vernissage is this thursday. here's the invite (you're invited):

New Work From The Sea

2009-04-28T22:36:00.000-07:00

4x4 wooden board ($3 if you ask nice at Home Depot) and a slew of found objects, mostly paper. The composition and the grate in the lower-central region remind me of a photo I took in Cuba (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sveavikander/3488079166/).

Hybrida Text

2008-11-17T10:40:00.000-08:00

The text from Hybrida, written by my sister, Tessa Vikander.

After 2.5 years at university and a year of intense activism and organizing around issues such as race, gender and class, I’ve finally come to learn that the most important aspect about culture is its fluidity.

Culture is dynamic and fluid. It is always evolving and thus it is impossible to contain and define. It is hard to theorize something that is always in movement; culture is affected by outside forces and processes, such as colonialism, statism, economic systems, migration, time and globalization. The concept of Hybridity, and the hybridized space (both of which this show is a commentary), recognizes this fluidity.

Living culture cannot be boxed in or captured in a photograph. Time is key to its existence and form; culture is constantly reinventing itself, day in, and day out; breath in, and breath out. This exhibit is an exploration of people, places, spaces and experience at the confluence of multiple and rapidly changing cultures.

Racing across the earth, my older sister flits from city to city, country to country. Her existence is transient. She is a figure, an idea, a person whose existence is fluid. I know only where she is by her photo-blogs and the intermittent postcards I receive in the mail. As she searches for hidden beauty, informal art, and alternative spaces, she also searches for herself. I see her travels as a quest to find the courage to express herself genuinely, every day, moment and second. Of course, she will find that courage from within, at her own time; however, the transient experience may be the way she uncovers her hidden strength.

The fact of cultural flux is particularly relevant to people who find themselves 'caught between' two or more cultures. The terms 'thirdspace' and 'hybridity' are a response to this phenomenon. Hybridity is not the fusion of two cultures; the hybridized space is the space in which individuals re-create culture, picking and choosing certain aspects of different cultures in order to reconcile the demands of their daily lives. Hybridity moves away from any one culture as being the originary (it is a rejection of cultural binaries), and instead "enables other positions to emerge..., sets up new structures of authority [and] new political initiatives" (Bhabha, 211) Furthermore, Hybridity “emerges from the dynamic notion of culture and also gives rise to it” (464).

"[H]ybridity puts together the traces of certain other meanings or discourses. It does not give them the authority of being prior in the sense of being original: they are prior only in the sense of being anterior. The process of cultural hybridity gives rise to something different, something new and unrecognizable, a new era of negotiation of meaning and representation" (211).

As she searches for personal authenticity, will my sister experience cultural authenticity? Or is cultural authenticity simply a romanticization of the othered culture?

Hybridity is a space free from assumptions about an authentic, originary culture. No cultures are "authentic," because culture, race and ethnicity are lucid, unstable categories, complicated by various factors. "[G]rasping for the authentic" is redunant because "cultures live in and through us everyday, with almost no self-consciousness about hierarchy or meaning" and because "[p]eople and cultures, from the outset, are... at the confluence of multiple heritages and cultures" (Prashad, 196).

During her travels I’ve often wondered about how Svea’s race affected her experience – both in the way people perceive and treat her and in the way she interprets the outside world. How different would her experience have been if she were a person of colour? Was she always treated as ‘white’?

From a young age I was taught to see race as inherently linked to culture. For example, if a new immigrant who was a person of colour was having difficulty finding a job, it was probably because their ‘culture’ was different from ‘Canadian culture,’ and that they just needed to ‘adapt.’

It wasn’t until I got to university that I was challenged by my peers to look more critically at race. I quickly learned about structural racism and how capitalism profits off of racialized people. Soon I came to see that racism in Canada is embedded, and silenced through the government’s Multicultural policies, and by our fear of talking about it, i.e. “white guilt.” As Ethan Miller puts it:

“ ‘Oh I am not racist,’ many white folks have said
But racism’s not just a thought in your head
It’s the privilege we wield when we walk down the street
And don’t have to fear each white cop that we meet

It’s the power we’re handed from the moment of birth
When we’re told our pale skin is our measure of worth
“Colorblind” is a code-word for “the problem’s not mine”
“Cause white folks got the privilege to say “everything’s fine”

It’s in the history of our families
In the stories that we bear
It’s in the small, subtle perks
Along the way that got us there
It’s in all the shit we never went through
All the pain we never felt
It’s in the stacked deck of cards
And the hands we were dealt

(…)

So who’s really to blame? It’s not easy to say
And of course those in power want to keep it that way
This trouble runs deep, to the core of our souls
We were formed by the power that our ancestors stole

Is it the person or the structure that keeps racism alive?
Well it’s both and they’re nourished by the great white lie
We’ve got to struggle on the inside, struggle on the out
Cause struggling together’s what solidarity’s about”

-lyrical excerpt of Ethan Miller’s song, No More White Lies

Canada prides itself on its multicultural policies. However, multiculturalism is not all it’s stacked up to be. The idea of multiple cultures coexisting is fabulous, however in reality, and in policy, multiculturalism:

- Requires that culture can be defined, contained and static, in order to promote tangible and definable 'diversity.' In other words, it boxes-in cultures, from which it then creates a binary, and thus the notion of the ‘other.’

- Historicizes and freezes an appreciation of cultures, and locks them into a certain time-frame, as well as into a "musee imaginaire."

- “Shunts aside” histories of oppression and resistance “in favor of a celebration of difference and of the experiences of individuals who can narrate their ethnicity for the consumption of others” (ibid). For example, multicultural policies encourage ethnic festivals so people ‘feel recognized’ and ‘honoured,’ thus subduing people from speaking out about discrimination based on race (i.e. racism).

- “Represent[s] an attempt both to respond to and to control the dynamic process of the articulation of cultural difference, administering a consensus based on a norm that propagates cultural diversity" (208-9).

- Allows for diversity of opinion within the dominant population yet assumes a cultural coherence within minority/marginalized groups (for example, the existence of conservative, liberal and radical values among white people are recognized, but among muslim people, it is assumed that they are all conservative).

Hybridity is premised on the fluidity of culture. Because multiculturalism is premised on cultural staticism, hybridity is thus a rejection of multiculturalism. Instead, hybridity embraces a social approach called polyculturalism.

To put it simply, "[a] polyculturalist sees the world as constituted by the interchange of cultural forms, while multiculturalism sees the world as already constituted by different (and discrete) cultures that we can place into categories and study with respect" (Prashad 1999, 197).

Polyculturalism can be defined against multiculturalism: it allows for a hybridity not based on a specific cultural history claiming authenticity. Accepting a polycultural approach to the world would mean understanding that cultures are formed from a variety of different heritages; that cultures are shifting and changing due to external and internal processes and forces. Unlike multiculturalism, polyculturalism does not allow for the ‘national mythology’ that is a country’s “history.” Polyculturalism is the school of thought that allows for the notion of hybridity: while hybridity “puts together the traces of certain other meanings or discourses,” polyculturalism is the philosophy that recognizes the multiplicity of those “certain other meanings [and] discourses” (Bhabha, 211).

Polyculturalism offers an understanding of ethnographic complexity (ibid) and is disruptive of binaries of “pure/inauthentic national cultures and memories” (Maira 2000, 353). It rejects racial and cultural hierarchies, giving no group of people or place preference or authority in terms of their place in and influence on culture. Polyculturalism is a refusal to “fall prey to the culturalist notion that all 'races' must take their place on the American spectrum of high cultures, … [and is a resolution to] fight to forge complex cultures of solidarity” (Prashad, 235). Polyculturalism and hybridity are thus radical and exciting and “give rise to something different, something new and unrecognizable, a new era of negotiation of meaning and representation” (Bhabha, 211).

Works Cited

Bhabha, Homi. 19901. "The Third Space." In Identity: Community, Culture, Difference, ed. Jonathan Rutherford, 207-221. London: Lawrence and Wishart.

Khan, Shahnaz. “Muslim Women: Negotiations in the Third Space.” Signs Vol 23, No 2 (Winter 1998): 463-494.

Maira, Sunaina. “Henna and Hip Hop: The Politics of Cultural Production and the Work of Cultural Studies.” Journal of Asian American Studies Volume 3, Number 3 (October 2000): 329-369.

Prashad, Vijay. “Desh: The Contradictions of Homeland.” Contours of the Heart: South Asians Map North America. Ed. Sunaina Maira and Rajiji Srikanth. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1997, 225-236.

Prashad, Vijay. “From Multiculture to Polyculture in South Asian American Studies.” Diaspora. Vol 8, No 2 (1999): 185-195.

Hybrida Exhibit

2008-11-17T08:57:00.000-08:00

Photos from the Gladstone exhibit.

Hybrida

2008-11-11T10:32:00.000-08:00

The hybridized state is the space in which individuals re-create culture, picking and choosing certain aspects of different cultures, in order to reconcile demands in their daily lives. As Homi Bhabha puts it, "all forms of culture are continually in a process of hybridity."*

Hybrida: 37 Cities is an exhibition of mixed-media pieces that reflect the chaos and complexity of cultural hybridity. Mixed-media paintings by Svea Vikander, text by Tessa Vikander.

Please join us for refreshments and discussion at the Gladstone Hotel, Toronto. November 15th 2008. 7pm-11pm.

*(Bhabha, Homi. 19901. "The Third Space." In Identity: Community, Culture, Difference, ed. Jonathan Rutherford, 207-221. London: Lawrence and Wishart.)

Before and After photos (works in progress and finished):
In progress:

Finished (detail):

In Progress:

Finished:
In Progress (detail):

Finished (detail):
In Progress (detail):

And Finished:

Sverige

2008-10-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

Another mixed-media piece -- but the only one I did in Sweden.

Acrylic paint, egg cartons, calendar images, oil pastel, marker, thread; on canvas. About 3'x3'.

It's funny, I complained how cold I found Sweden to be -- but here is one of the warmest pieces I've ever done.

The Alina Project

2008-09-18T01:44:00.000-07:00

She asked:
Why do people love me?
What is there to love about me?

June 17, 2008I asked our friends. They said...

Alina is so hard to describe. two words: buzz cut! To those who don't know her, I think she seems sophisticated and stylish and very Montreal-cool. I remember Tao-Yee, after not seeing with Alina for years, saying that Alina seemed to have gotten so sophisticated and cool, much too cool for her old Vancouver friends like Tao-Yee. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Alina will always have those old flip flops. Genuine. Uncomplicated. I love how she always looks so well put-together, but actually she's wearing her teenage sister's jeans and her grandmother's shoes. And not in this hipster ironic flea-market-chic way, but just actually that's where she gets her clothes from. Her gentle energy is uplifting. I love how even in the craziest winter in montreal, alina still keeps it real bein THE BIKE LADY. she's fantastic! Independent, intelligent, beautiful. She is a very slow eater - contemplative, if you will. =D Too far away; messy yet elegant. her smile makes me smile. Every time. true to herself. one of Alina's best features is her adorable *Russian phrase sleep-talking* I remember how tiny Alina was in second grade, and how surprised and interested I was to hear about what she'd done in the fifteen year gap before we met again. she always listens without judgment, and usually has some good advice with a touch of positive. She walks with bells on her feet. Alina is the type of person that can get along with every other 'type'. DANCE MOVES. The first time I visited her in Montreal she seemed to have this whole new glamorous Montreal life, with big sunglasses and waitressing jobs and francophone friends and a hip hopper boy and so on. But one day we were hanging out in her apartment, I think in the kitchen to be precise, and she was wearing these flip flops that she had had for at least six years, and I was suddenly transported back to the Alina I grew to know and love in the hallways of Kits high school, this quirky Russian girl, just as mixed up and awkwardly adolescent as the rest of us, talking to her mom in Russian on her cell phone (t'ree t'ree tzitz!) and wearing the striped ribbed t-shirts that were a must-have for west-side thirteen-year-old girls in the mid-nineties. She’s a doer, not a talker. Everyone loves her because of the ease with which she can relate to anyone regardless of their varying eccentricities, etc. rated # 7 bartender in all of Kazakhstan! Also she is crazy adventurous, as we all know. too adventurous sometimes hehe. is always a good time. Go Alina! Easy on the eyes. radiates positive energy. Alina really deserves to hear how wonderful she is. gets other people excited; inspires me. ...and so much more! that wont fit on a t-shirt...

How Poems Work

2008-06-23T17:50:00.000-07:00

This is a new project I've been working on during my stay at the Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts, on the Toronto Islands. I'm cutting up the old Globe and Mail article 'How Poems Work' (in which a writer presented and analyzed a poem of his/her choice) to make new poems. It's a tedious, enjoyable procedure.

Most of the poems are up at: www.howpoemswork.blogspot.com

And you can see some of them here.

Bird Flew In

2008-05-19T17:59:00.000-07:00

I was house-sitting my friend Kevin's beautiful apartment in Little Italy.

Suddenly, a large black bird appeared at the window.

He flew in, making no noise as he flapped around the apartment.

He visited the red wall and the wooden clock.

And then, to my relief, he flew out the same window through which he'd come.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

This is a one foot-square mixed-media piece that I'm sending to my mom. It contains oil pastel, torn photographs, coloured paper, tempra paint, coloured pencils and love. Below, some detail shots.

The little grandmothers are tiny photographs of women I met in Cuba (I was there with my mom). I posted these portraits about two years ago: http://sveavikander.blogspot.com/2006/07/cuba-ii-tres-avuelas.html

In this detail, you can see some of the other photographs in this piece -- a cut-up shot of the Eiffel Tower and some fragments of the image below.

Tea Leaves (me breathless)

2008-05-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

This is a Japanese tea-flower.

I wanted to get pictures of it unfolding, but it exploded before I could catch it. It tastes like regular green tea.

Beet Red Rain

2008-05-04T13:13:00.000-07:00

This is a piece I did for a University of Toronto art show about four years ago. I took hand-made papers and cooked them with beets, which dyed them a gorgeous soft red. Then I stuck them to this board, along with some photographs, carved it up a bit, added some white paint... It looked great and I gave it away to a friend who wanted it; the next time I saw the piece, the paper had gone a putrid choral colour and the whole thing reminded me of dentistry. Here I've updated it with acrylic and tempra paints.

Street Art: Sevilla and Tetouan

2008-04-25T22:02:00.000-07:00

...Not that they're in the same country, or anything. Sevilla = Seville, Spain. Tetouan is a mountain city in the north of Morocco. This is Ketamina; a variety of other recreational drugs were scrawled on this wall, but I like this one because of the magenta+orange combo.

I think this was a state-sponsored mural, left unfinished. It's better this way.

Does this (advertising) count as art? At first I thought it was for decoration, but they actually sell these oil lamps; the kid was playing soccer with his friend (outside of the frame)

Street Art: Granada

2008-04-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

This guy must be the staple of the street-art world. His casper-like figure started appearing in Kensington Market maybe five years ago and when I got to Granada (off the bus alone, late at night, going the wrong way), he was such a comforting sight.

This lovely lady (and other large pieces) line the street up the 'back way' to the Alhambra Castle.

Cats in Al Bayzein, the Arabic/Hippie quarter.

'Moorish' architecture.

Street Art: Madrid

2008-04-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

Imagina. I like the way that the artist has integrated his/her work into the decay of the building.

Madrid seems like a city of peeling paper -- layers upon layers, both preserved and destroyed. I had been thinking that and the next day I saw the Spanish film 'El Orphilino' (The Little Orphan Boy), which used the peeling-back-paper theme throughout.

Two and Seven. These are from the wholesale textile district. I don't know what the story is.

Street Art: Paris

2008-04-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

Anarchist symbol on a bronze statue above the Seine.

The Rodin Museum gives these stickers as admission tickets. Hundreds of people chose this one pole for their very own public art. I love the 'natural distribution' of stickers -- most at arm-level with ever decreasing frequency towards the top and bottom of the pole. It's the bell-curve!

Lea, you are one lucky girl.

Portrait: Milena

2007-11-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

These are two versions of the headshots I did for my talented friend Milena. A book publisher has contacted her about using the photo in a publication about unique headshots. I made her print and send in both. I really prefer the top one!

Jewelry: Nahanni Necklace

2007-11-05T13:50:00.000-08:00

Also from the Organic Metal Gallery course, this piece was made using the lost-wax casting technique. It's sterling silver with copper wire accents, hung on turquoise leather.

Jewelry: Nomen Silver Cuff

2007-11-05T12:58:00.000-08:00

I just finished what I'm sure will be the first of many metal-working class at Organic Metal Gallery on College St. I made this silver cuff bracelet with raised text. The text is a series of names: mis-spellings from my family's fifty years in Canada. I photocopied the original writing so that I could get as close as possible to the authenticity of human errata. Plus, it looks better.

VICTORIKANDER
V. KURDER
DIKENDER
VIRANDER
BICANDER
VUJABDER
VIKONOLER
VANDEKER
VIAKANDER
VANKANDE
VIHASDER
VICKANVER
VAKANTER
VIKKAUDER
VINKANDER
V. CONDOR

The first (Victorikander) appeared on a bill from Bell Canada. I didn't want to pay the bill so I almost didn't. It wasn't, after all, addressed to me. The last (V. Condor) is a contribution from my late grandfather, Yngve. It was typed carefully onto a 1955 doctor's bill; I can just hear him annoucing himself as Mr. "Vee-kahn-der" with his soft Swedish accent.

A few people have asked me why I didn't include "Vikander". Because I'll be the one wearing it, I didn't feel the need to. Also, I had to omit plenty of hilarious name variations due to space restrictions. And finally, there's something about the fact that this is an immigrant name; I feel that in a way this collection of names is a story of immigration. Although one of the misspellings did come from a piece of IKEA correspondence, the chances of a Swedish name being so regularly mangled *in Sweden* seem slim.
These are names other people have called us. By wearing them, I suppose I am drawing attention to difference (not just to my personal sense of being different, but also to the uniqueness of each spelling), and looking at the ways that we carry our words/names on our bodies. Our bodies, and the way we decorate them, contribute to our sense of identity, as much as a name does. Like the bracelet, it seems a bit circular.

The cuff is sterling silver, made by rolling an acid-etched plate across a flat silver piece. To create the acid-etched plate, one must etch into a rubberize surface, carving out the space that will be in relief on the final piece. The plate is then dipped into acid so that the spaces carved out can be etched/corroded further into the metal, and the rubber will completely disintegrate. Below, the acid-etched plate and the safety pin I used to carve out the details. The text is backwards because the end result is always a mirror image of your carving, much like a print. The safety pin has a bit of family memory in it, too. I found it on a beautiful dress that my aunt lent me. It was holding a seam together. A reminder of her early days as a Vikander!

NB: Carving 'N' backward is particularly difficult.

Jewelry: Gris

2007-10-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

I've started to get into jewelry-making again. This is a pendant I made over a weekend glass fusing intensive at Nanopod Hybrid Studio (http://www.nanopod.tv/). Glass fusing is a process that involves cutting and arranging glass so that it can be melted and re-formed in a kiln. The top three photos show the piece in different lights; the bottom shows the back. I stamped the silver with GRIS, french for grey.

Jewelry: Belt Buckle

2007-10-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

This is a belt buckle. It needs a belt. Photographing glass is really difficult. I don't think any one of these photos really capture the colours very well... It's purple, not brown. Like the Gris piece, the floating metallic piece is a gold-foiled piece of glass melted in.

Jewelry: Retro Pendant

2007-10-22T06:20:00.000-07:00

I wanted this pendant to look a little bit like a retro sports logo... It really depends which way you hold it. With the lines vertical it looks like a flower/plant design; horizontally it looks a bit more sportif. Because I wanted to hide the silver post it's hanging on a diagonal. Below, another blue pendant; this one is bezel set (with silver backing and encircling it).

Sri Lanka: Veronika in Wonderland

2007-10-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

This is Veronika, a good friend of mine from Spain. We met in the meditation centre and took off for a few days to explore. Look in the reflection of her sunglasses... It's a massive Buddha statue! Those are her clothes hanging to dry at Nilambe below, and some scenes we came across during our time together. We have a man on a train, a roadside sales shack that I planned to photograph for two months, and a three-wheeled taxi on the road to Galaha.

Sri Lanka: Night Portraits and Stones

2007-10-18T15:42:00.000-07:00

My friend Karla and I went out in Colombo on Posson Poya, one of the major celebrations in Sri Lanka. A dry-law is in effect and the people flock to the ocean side, eating 'short eats' (fast food that usually contains some kind of dough) and playing in the moonlight. Below are some stones, probably once used for cooking.

Sri Lanka: Negombo

2007-10-18T15:39:00.000-07:00

The first place I stayed in Sri Lanka was a small and touristed fishing village on the South West coast. These are photos from that time. From top: view of the Indian Ocean from a fishing shack (black and white), some ongoing renovations (in blue) and a plastic fence to protect some hotel flowers.

Sri Lanka: Cracked Walls

2007-10-18T15:24:00.000-07:00

I saw this beautiful house from the seat of my bicycle, on the way to Matale. I made Veronika stop while I took 20 photos. Isn't it beautiful?

Sri Lanka: Staircase

2007-10-18T15:10:00.000-07:00

It's a common understanding among travelers that "nothing" in India or Sri Lanka *works*. I hate to say I agree with this, but it did take TWO HOURS to be rushed to the hospital when I had an allergic reaction. The issue? The taxi needed to gas up... Half an hour out of the way. Plus, we were stuck behind a fish vendor's truck. In any case, here is a broken staircase.

Sri Lanka: Beggar Men

2007-10-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

I was in Sri Lanka for three months last summer. It's a country that's always fascinated me, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to go and stay in a meditation retreat cente. I also did some traveling, and most of these photos are from that portion of my trip. In Cuba I found myself drawn to the dignified old women; in going through my photos from SK, I found that I had taken just as many photos of elegant old men. Here are a few.

Sexy Knitting

2007-05-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

My friend Nicole is writing an article on 'sexy knitting' -- the knitting trend's inevitable progression from the parlour to the bedroom. I took these photos for her piece.

Pink Jamaican Concrete

2007-04-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

These are pictures of a piece of broken concrete off one of the piers at Shaw Park. I'm crazy about the colour, the cracks and the way the rust has seeped into the concrete. The last photo is just me playing around: I lowered the exposure and increased the contrast to get the edge (the part that had the most light on it) to stand out.

Pink

2007-04-03T11:10:00.000-07:00

OK, this might seem obvious. Maybe it would be cooler if the word were 'boy' or 'link' or something -- but I've been pressing flowers under their colour designation in this very dictionary for years. Like, since I was a kid. And sometimes they fade and I find brown petals under 'violet'.

Tree / Trunk

2007-03-04T17:52:00.000-08:00

La Vie en Rouge

2007-01-15T11:03:00.000-08:00

Alors, je suis a Paris. Je trouve que la plupart de mes photos sont domines par le coloeur rouge. Ici sont quelques photos d'Anne, ma copine, avant de sortir. Il y en a aussi des photos d'une femme Parisienne (belle, comme toutes les femmes parisiennes!) et d'une porte avec un coeur, proche d'un restaurant franco-chinois. A bientot!

New Year's Day

2007-01-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

I took these shots early this morning. The church is just north of College on Shaw St. in Toronto.

Rose Box

2006-12-15T01:52:00.000-08:00

This is a piece that I made for a friend in the summer of 2002; it was her birthday. I had the flat wooden box from my grandfather's basement and I decorated it with dried rose petals, white eggshell housepaint, magazine images, feathers, found objects, etc. Inside were more rose petals and little notes saying the things I liked about her. Here I am, on the way to the party.

In other news, I have finally created myself a flickr account. Wanna see 123 of my photos? Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sveavikander .

I am also in the process of setting up an online store through cafepress.com . Cafepress allows me to custom-design merchandise and sell it safely online. The site is in progress but you can check it out at: http://www.cafepress.com/svea .

You could, for example, buy this very serene mousepad.

Nature Walk

2006-12-11T21:04:00.000-08:00

These are all photos of the same thicket of trees. I adjusted the exposure on my new camera(!) to get the warmer shades in the sky.

The Leopard and the Umbrella

2006-12-04T14:29:00.000-08:00

This is Tessa in front of her leopard-print umbrella. Her face is so expressive! I should make all my models stand outside in the cold.

Corn Field

2006-11-24T15:40:00.000-08:00

As much as I love the city, I think places like this are pretty darn beautiful.

Eyelashes

2006-11-21T22:58:00.000-08:00

These are leftover from the photoshoot I did on Sunday. The shots of Kristen and Dave on LifeLines (http://www.onlinelifes.blogspot.com) are from the same afternoon. I think these would look better in black and white, but I've run out of time...

And here they are.

feathers and skin

2006-11-17T14:38:00.000-08:00

I took these yesterday, too. They are self-portraits taken from the reflection off my glass-topped coffee table, which has a pink silk scarf and a dismantled (feather) burlesque costume inside it. The sun came in through my window for only a few minutes.

sunset/refractory

2006-11-10T14:44:00.000-08:00

These are shots from the sunset the other night. It's the view from my west-facing window; the hanging glass piece is a rainbow-maker that I inherited from my alternative elementary school (Wondertree -- check it out in the sidebar link).

The first is out of focus, but I like the fuzzyness. I think it goes well with the soft evening light.

And here are some more, from yesterday.

Youn might notice the dirt more than the light, but it's still pretty.

For some reason this just hasn't gotten old yet. I love my view. Here are some more.

Maybe this won't end until I move out. Here are some more. They were all taken on the same solitary evening.

Mudra

2006-11-02T10:46:00.000-08:00

Emily and I are talking about doing a series of yogic hand/body postures called 'mudras' (sp?). While I was photographing her scars, we took this shot. It's such a powerful pose.

Life Lines: The Scar Show

2006-10-24T12:29:00.000-07:00

This is the invite for the show I've been working on. It's been such an intense experience, photographing parts that people usually try to hide. Sometimes it really is a mix of therapy and art... I've learnt so much about people and bodies, as well as the relationship between model/photographer. The photos will be up at Good For Her for the month of November; the opening afternoon tea will most be November 3rd from 2:00 to 5:00pm. As always, all are welcome.

Also, check out the Life Lines blog (http://www.onlinelifelines.blogspot.com) to see scar photos and stories.

Cabbage Cuff Monster

2006-10-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

Maxi Boyd sent out a call for artists interested in contributing to his Monster Mail Artswap (http://monstermailartswap.blogspot.com/). This is what I'm sending to my new friend in Sudbury. It's a monster made out of cabbage.

And this is what my new friend, Martin, had to say about his monster:

Received my monster – it was most disappointing...You should inform participants if they are sending an inkjet pic, to at least make sure that there is sufficient ink in the cartridge and to use a half decent stock. I can barely even make out the image.

Sorry Martin!

Chere Cara (Dear, fr., Dear, sp.)

2006-09-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

These are photos of my beautiful friend, Kara. The bowl holds icing sugar, which holds some personal symbolism for her. Plus, it photographs really nicely.

New Paintings

2006-08-01T10:12:00.000-07:00

I've been posting photography lately, so here are some of my most recent paintings (a trilogy) to even it out. They are all in various stages of completion. The piece in these first three shots is about six feet high; I used a piece of cloth dipped in turquoise paint to create the spine-like effect. I've been wanting to do something with vertebrae patterns for a while. I'm not sure where it will go from here.

The last four shots are close-ups of the first piece I finished. It doesn't 'work' as a whole, but it does in parts. I got whimsical and used some shiny star stickers from the dollar store. They look strange, but I like them. There's an element of fantasy in this piece (white paint looks like clouds, the usual abstract coloured shapes, etc.) so perhaps they fit.

Next of Skin: The Scarred Body

2006-07-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

This is the graphic I sent to hundreds of my closest family and friends. Colman Hogan said it reminded him of Ronsard's "La Vermeillette Fente" ('The Slit of Gold') and Sue Hemmings referred me to Missy Higgins' 'Scar.'

I used this picture for my talk at the Gladstone this week (on Tuesday the 25th). I spoke about scars, narrative and identity. I think my favourite part of the evening was the interactive element: I asked people to write the story of acquiring one of their scars and to read one line from it to the group.

I love hearing people open up about the wounds that have healed over.

I also took some photos. J. and R. were kind enough to allow me to photograph
the scars on their bodies and listen to their stories. Here is J.:

And R.:

I'm wondering if all photos of scars/bodies look best in black and white. Any opinions?

Cuba III: Los Ninos

2006-07-22T18:16:00.000-07:00

In the schoolyard,

Braving laundry water,

Having helado (ice-cream),

Getting gifts from foreigners -- look for the girl peeking out from behind the lamp-post.

Cuba II: Tres Avuelas

2006-07-22T18:05:00.000-07:00

I love their quiet grace. Almost every Cuban woman dresses beautifully.

Cuba I: Metal Work

2006-06-08T16:17:00.000-07:00

These are some of my photos from Cuba. There are so many more than I can show at the Mercury...

Microcosmos Vivientes

2006-05-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

"Crumbling, withered, exotic and alive; Havana is a living microcosm of the country at large." -- Lonely Planet

I'm going to Cuba tomorrow! Photos from this trip will be on display at the Mercury Espresso Bar. Come on the afternoon of June 3rd for an afternoon of coffee and photography. Part of the Riverdale Art Walk.

Envy Green Vanity

2006-04-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

I bought a beautiful green t-shirt from Bergstrom on Queen East. When I hand-washed it, the water turned this beautiful turqouise colour. It matched the bathroom accessories!

briar rose : fire rose

2006-04-16T17:02:00.000-07:00

_______________________________________________________

I've taken to buying myself a rose every Wednesday. I chose this one because I fell in love with the colour. I put it in my living room. When the afternoon light shines on it, it looks gorgeous. My friend told me that the association of roses with fire is an important one. In her story 'The Garden Party' Katherine Mansfield writes something along these lines:
"There, just inside the door, stood a wide, shallow tray full of pots of pink lilies. No other kind. Nothing but lilies -- canna lilies, big pink flowers, wide open, radiant, almost frighteningly alive on crimson stems. ... She crouched down as if to warm herself at that blaze of lilies; she felt they were in her fingers, on her lips, growing in her breast."

I wanted to take photos of a flower that were not typical 'flower' photos...

Picture of Me

2006-04-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

...This is just so I have a photo for my profile. This one is by Mark Turuk (http://www.pbase.com/imperium).

RAW Submission

2006-04-11T17:54:00.000-07:00

These are some of the photos that I submitted to the Riverdale Art Walk...

The Morning Don

2006-03-30T20:16:00.000-08:00

I went for a walk around the Don with my new friend Alex. She took the bottom photo, which I really like. It was a semi-warm Wednesday morning and we walked around for hours.

the Joy of X

2006-03-22T13:33:00.000-08:00

This post is in honour of the Joy of X: Media, Sex and Repression, an event that I'm hosting with the University of Toronto Jungian Society next Wednesday (the 29th)... You should come at 7pm to the Senior Common Room of New College and see the amazing Taylor G perform her humorous and insightful new piece, 'The Media Monologues'. It's free. Refreshments provided.

I went for a run by the Don today. I love the colour of the water -- to bad it's due to pollution -- and the contrast of the natural (including swans!) with the industrial.

Vines on Walls

2006-03-17T12:42:00.000-08:00

Three kinds of vines, three kinds of walls. Despite its greenery, Vancouver doesn't have enough vines. I love them. They're like roots that grow above the ground, or like flat vertical slices of trees. I was thinking today about the way that our experience with the natural world guides our inventions in the technological world. For example, chords. Would we have conceived of cords without having knowledge of vines, snakes, twigs, etc.? Or would we have invented some other way of tying things tightly or conveying information?

Scarabesque

2006-03-01T11:00:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of my stomach, which was operated on when I was a small baby. The surgery saved my life, and I have never felt self-conscious about my scar. Other people, however, often do feel uncomfortable with it. I don't show my midriff much, but when I do, others take great pains not to look -- although they do find it compelling.
It's a kind of "quick stare and look away" phenomenon.
The photo in the middle is a quick-edit version of a piece I would like to do several times throughout my life, as my scar grows and ages with me. Instead of the straight line that it usually is, my scar becomes an escher-esque pattern, with no end or beginning. I think it looks more organic but also more purposeful -- more in line with body modification or mutilation.
The bottom photo is a design I wanted to use for a clothing line which I never got off the ground. In addition to designing clothes, I wanted to open up a dialogue with women about the ways they experience and decorate their bodies. Maybe someday...

A change in scheme...

2006-02-22T13:10:00.000-08:00

This piece is one I worked on last summer. I was very interested in very intense colours combinations. I wanted each piece to explode off of a white wall. This one started out as above (orange and blue) and finished up as below (pink/orange/blue). It is a piece of found metal mesh attached to canvas with embroidery thread. I added acrylic paint, paper, satin and beads.

Happy Valentine's Day II: Queen Street

2006-02-15T07:15:00.000-08:00

Queen St. W. and University Avenue: I saw these as I got off the streetcar. I wanted to stop and take a photo, but I was late for class. I had to come back later.

When I returned, I realised that the little painted hearts extended all the way down the sidewalk to old City Hall. I love the randomness of their pattern, and the idea of generous people painting them on a cold February night.

There were also quotes and song lyrics sketched along the sidewalk. My favourite was, "Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, One Night Only!" in front of Osgoode Hall. My great-grandfather studied law there... Lonely Hearts Club Band, indeed.

Happy Valentine's Day I: On Campus

2006-02-15T07:01:00.000-08:00

How sweet. There were red plastic arrows posted all around campus, directing one to King's College Circle. There, the leafless trees were decorated with hearts of the same plastic. Who did this? For whom?

It made my day.

Bird/Cage Details

2006-02-10T12:37:00.000-08:00

These details capture more what I wanted to express than the full images. I was going for a colour scheme and patterning reminiscent of peacock feathers. Pieces of peacock feathers are used in the piece, but not in their entirety. The shape of the metal piece seemed bird-like to me. I'm interested in making the unflinching industrial metal/concrete material paradoxically mimic the movement of a bird in flight. It's still a work in progress.

Bird/Cage

2006-02-10T12:28:00.000-08:00

This was a piece I made originally in the summer of 2003 and revised in the summer of 2005. It is a piece of found construction material (metal mesh) attached to 3 canvases. Acrylic paint, feathers, silk, embroidery thread and sequins are also attached; small pieces of concrete were stuck in the mesh when I found it, and I painted these turqouise.

Winter Berries, Old Wood

2005-11-28T19:33:00.000-08:00

It was amazing, to stumble upon these blue, blue berries in an alley, on such a cold, crisp day.

Fall Photos

2005-11-23T16:49:00.000-08:00

UNDO CHAINS. SINGER
I love the completely bizarre and entirely private nature of graffiti - despite being by definition a public statement, it's usually not meant for public consumption. For all I know, these are cryptic directions to delivery personnel, or fragments of a personal manifesto.

More rust. On teal.

Originally, didn't think much of this photo. Since cropping, it's grown on me. I like the tension between the sharply defined square that crops and the more organic and softer square of the leaves/crate.

fan art

2005-08-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

These are two detail shots from a piece that failed miseraby. It had great potential, but something about it would just not work. Sometimes it's like that. The piece had a beautiful rusted metal piece - an old fan grate - in the centre. It is now sitting on my fire escape.
I do like these detail shots, though. I was experimenting with the patterns created by using a plastic keyboard cover as a stencil.

Violet/Yellow

2005-08-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

This is a more recent piece. It measures a square foot and is composed of mixed media (fabric, found rusted metal pieces, embroidery thread, plastic mesh, sequins, paper, birch bark, etc.) on wood. Most of the paper pieces come from a newspaper print of a Matisse painting, which shares the same colour scheme.

Green/Onion

2005-08-02T14:54:00.000-07:00

This is a piece I completed about a year ago. It measures 21" x 21" and is composed of mixed media (paper died with onion skins, textiles (mostly silk and satin), found objects (rusted metal!), dried plant materials, acrylic paint, etc.). I'm happy with this piece's organic feel and irregular patterns. My friend Nicole (the creator of Girly Bird designs) has it in now.

December 2006: I'm spending time at home in Vancouver, B.C. I came across this little fabric piece that I worked on around the time of the Green/Onion piece. I think it carries much of the same themes, but looks a bit more stylized.

The whitish fabric is hand-dyed (by mistake -- I hand-washed my camisole in a rusty pot) and stitched onto a thick black satin ribbon with green embroidery thread that gradates from light to dark. The small grey-green square is a piece of silk.