Linnéa Therese Dimitriou

The task was to come up with an aesthetic concept and exhibition design to aptly present the #metoo movement in Sweden while creating a safe space for visitors confronting material they may find triggering.

I wanted to give the exhibition a strong femme aesthetique and include transparent elements. Ideation quickly led me to utopian 1960s sci-fi, specifically the film Barbarella. The movie features Jane Fonda exploring space in her furry space ship, in a time when the world has evolved far from violence and war. I'm fond not just of the visual orgasm of this film but of the era - late 1960s - when there was still so much idealism and optimism. I wanted to bring retro futurist utopian space vibes to and create an over the top space that feels welcoming, forward looking and hyper feminine.

The exhibition includes 200 meters of pink gorilla fur, custom furniture, plexiglass displays and resin casts of memorabilia from 2018-2023 (such as a worn trainer with a feminist message, books, speaker notes from demonstration). Strong textural contrasts are achieved between the furry soft shapes and the transparent plastic elements that include sharp fingernails, rhinestones and visible media technology. There is room to relax and reflect with meditation pods, as well as making one's own statement - like a corner with props dedicated to selfies. The faux fur gives a warm feeling and great acoustics.

I proposed a process to gather local children´s input and perspectives for a planned park and recreational area in Umeå. Together with designer Anna Parry I then worked with 72 5 and 6 year olds in the autumn 2021. We visited and explored the site with the children in smaller groups and then documented their ideas by first enacting and talking, and then drawing and sculpting. Insights from the material was presented to the Park Dpt and became lead principles in the design of the overall park. Three ideas were also selected to be realised as play sculptures that I then designed. I used the children´s sketches and maquettes as my starting point. The sculptures were produced in fibreglass with built in lighting. The sculptures and the parts of the park that had been finished were inaugurated September 2022, with a large group of the children who had participated in attendance.

Revir means territory or domain and is specifically associated with marking of territory.

Revir was a multi sensorial duo exhibition that brought in two additional collaborators - music by Sakarias Wangefjord and fragrance by Carlos-Ivan Jacobo, both specially composed for the exhibition.

The fragrance was designed to attract but with an edge that might repel. It was used throughout the space and samples could be bought by visitors. The music added to the visual tempo of the exhibition with sounds relating to the themes explored. A sample can be found at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wV5J3XelGaLuSmA6gbyRMQcNNc2uyTEV/view?usp=drivesdk

Selection of works (2020-2021), that deal with the surface and the limitations of the frame or canvas. I've explored visual echoes, rhythms and patterns and have used fabric as a visual and material ‘reverb effect’ to the canvas cloth. Art history is a constant Inspiration for me, and here influence was derived from studies of fabric in painting and sculpture, where the movement of textiles is employed as a sort of baseline to the narrative - stories to be studied separately as pure visual amusement. To me, the best work tends to have inbuilt tensions that achieve some otherworldly spark - as if something is about to happen, move or as if there is some pent up energy about to bring forth a transformation. I chase the thrill of that tipping point, hoping some tension will remain on the finished work and be palpable to the viewer: some un-stillness. One of those interesting tensions is that between the painting as a ‘window’ and a surface- at the tipping point of entering in and out of an illusion.

During the spring of 2021 my studio was frequented by athletic male models, most of them recruited at Legendary Gym, a body builder hang out in my town. The conversations with the guys came to revolve around the body, discipline and identity. I reflected on the first women admitted to the painting academies and how they were denied access to life models, having instead to draw from sculpture - and what the effects of that would have been.

For the exhibition at Granö I set up the space to give a feel of a working studio. A small selection from the huge amount of work (I had made 100+ sketches, paintings and maquettes) were placed all around the walls and on make shift tables. In the middle of the room, a leather armchair refashioned as a male torso was placed from which to view the work.

Credit to Nya Makeriet for the leather work.

In the ongoing Rückenfigur series I employ a painterly device popular in the Romantic era that has typically been deployed as a site of identification for the viewe- to allow them inside the landscape or scene. In my application the inherent contradiction and impossibility of this is laid bare. Painted on glass, the figure is only ever viewable from the back, and the viewer is blatantly refused access to the inner workings and perceived perspective of the figure.

I benefit hugely from the rich history of art, and I often refer to pictorial archetypes from different eras. The girl figure in the Rückenfigur work ‘Aim’ (2020) also draws from the historical ‘putti’ figures - the angelic and naughty boys that can be seen peeing in fountains, fondling women or generally partying in monuments, ornaments and paintings all over the world. This piece was included in the survey exhibition of Swedish contemporary painting, Nu!/Now! at Museum Anna Nordlander in 2020.

A studio habit - the ongoing ‘Corpus’ series. The series took off while I was breast feeding my youngest child and now amounts to over 50 paintings, many now in public and private collections. Corpus is latin for body and a term for the mid panel of an altar piece. The works all share the same basic composition. They are all made swiftly, predominantly in alla prima or 'wet on wet' oil painting technique at the end of the day whenever I have the time to spare.

Some works are available as prints, please e-mail me for details and availability.