SOTSTOFT (soot-dust)

During the construction of an industrial society, the surrounding nature was the primary source of raw materials and energy. Smoke and dust filled the air when canals were dug, forest became charcoal, fire formed steam, stone became ore.

We have a habit of observing the traces of these profound changes where factories, housing, railways, and other infrastructure are visible monuments to a region's historiography. Traces of processes for transformative economic and social development that led us to the society we share today. But what lies hidden from what is visible to the eye?

In the exhibition SOTSTOFT, ten master's students reflect on their own observations in relation to Sandviken's development and the times we live in. Above all, they direct attention to what is not immediately visible but still exists around us: The soot, the dust, the smoke, or simply the invisible in existence. Like the poet Stig Sjödin, who in the poetry collection Sotfragment (Soot Fragments) dreams of clean shirts and greenery, the students share their artistic interpretations of their encounter with the place and life, through new works created for the art gallery.

Maria Lantz, professor/ curator