Mattias Åkeson Swedish, b. 1970
Further images
Safety Inspection #1 and #2
These sculptures are made from furniture that was being discarded from a government workplace. When the department responsible for reusing and redistributing the furniture declined to take it, the objects were left in a kind of limbo. This situation became the starting point for the sculptures, which explore ideas of care and neglect, while also asking what it means to take responsibility for something that is no longer considered useful. Rather than simply presenting the furniture as discarded, the sculptures approach it as something that might still call for attention, care, or protection.
This question of how we care for what has been neglected is also present in the cushions placed against and around the furniture. Their softness and familiarity give the objects a more bodily presence, almost as though they were being cared for or tended to. In bringing these two materials together, the sculptures create a sense of personification: the furniture begins to appear vulnerable, exposed, and in need of attention. The cushions therefore introduce a tension between abandonment and care, between objects that have been deemed no longer useful and the possibility of continuing to value and attend to them.
It is this tension that also connects the sculptures to the film Kom & Gå. The film brings together people whose conversations unfold around work, responsibility, and our relationships to one another, while the sculptures approach similar questions through the relationship between objects. In this sense, they extend the concerns of the film into a different register: what happens when the question of responsibility is no longer about how we care for one another, but about how we respond to the things—and perhaps the people—that have been left behind?
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Skyddsrond #1 och #2
Skulpturerna består av möbler som skulle rensas ut från en statlig arbetsplats. När den avdelning som ansvarade för att återbruka och ta hand om möblerna tackade nej till dem, blev objekten kvar i ett slags mellanläge. Denna situation blev utgångspunkten för skulpturerna, som kretsar kring frågor om omsorg och försummelse, men också kring vad det innebär att ta ansvar för något som inte längre betraktas som användbart.
Kuddarna som placerats mot och kring möblerna ger objekten en mer kroppslig närvaro, nästan som om de själva blev omhändertagna. Mötet mellan kuddarnas mjuka och välbekanta karaktär och de kasserade möblerna skapar ett slags förmänskligande, där objekten får en känsla av utsatthet och sårbarhet.
Skulpturerna är nära förbundna med filmen Kom & Gå, både genom människorna som förekommer i den och genom de samtal som kretsar kring arbete, ansvar och våra relationer till varandra. Skulpturerna för dessa frågor vidare i en annan form, där omsorg och övergivenhet uttrycks genom relationen mellan objekt snarare än mellan människor.