Emil Faisal Hasselberg

Exploration of a Swing in a Polarised Landscape

Since a few years back, I live in a small remote village located in the north of Sweden, surrounded by forest. The pulp factory is located a couple of miles away, where many people in the area work, and the landscape is signifi cantly embossed by both the historical and current forest industry. When I refl ect about my work in relation to the place, it feels like it goes hand in hand. The mountains are increasingly characterised by the bald spots that grow wider. The fi shing places on the mire are nowadays wide open fi elds and on the way to the city the piles of lumber rises from the mill. At home, the kitchen becomes warm from the fire in the stove.

Exploration of a Swing in a Polarised Landscape is based on refl ecting our contemporary relation to the forest and forestry. An interactive swing, consisting of a log replicated in metal, embodies the play of childhood, timber tongs depict the small scale to the big scale forest industries, but also the development from a forestry by hand towards today's forest machines. The bark, grey, raw, organic. The wood, the internal, coloured in gold, the essence of the industry. With a tone of poeticness, the work discusses and explores how an artwork can be a narrator within the concept and context and investigates questions as, what attributes could an artwork have to potentially create a platform for discussion? How can associations within an artwork work as a tool of communication to the forest industry? The purpose of the work is to create a space for refl ection and discussion through an installation, where the focus is on questions regarding our forests. Where is the balance between the use of nature as an industrial resource? What does forests mean to us as individuals, and as a collective?