cargo

In powerful balls of fabric, Susanne Schmidt Nielsen collects memories and experiences from all of us. She calls the works cargo and lets them become emblematic of that which we humans always bear with us – baggage that we carry inside ourselves and that can take on new forms and guises in different phases of our lives, but which always influences us. The artwork is located along Köpmangatan, where many people are constantly moving. On benches, in entrances to buildings and on façades, they are there – inviting viewers to engage in dialogue and contemplation. The fabric is black and tightly wound. Maybe it’s getting ready to store the black lump inside me – lighten my burden, stop the dwelling and make me a bit freer and happier?

The artist own words about cargo, no. 13-27, 2022

we bring it | drag it along | it becomes part of us | the impact on us when we meet the other one, the other something | gentle or harsh, tiny or hefty, juicy or fragile | whether we wish so or not | we can change the shape, the tone, the function | or at least we can try | but it moves in, inside of us | we have gained a new shape, an addition, a new load to carry

Textile, used or new. Knotted and wrapped together forcefully, added and connected. The textile is black, not (mainly) depicting a black mood, but to give space for the underlying story in the physical appearance of the work. The surface, the shell, the outer membrane, is coated with a layer of wax, glue or epoxy, changing the story, a bit.

Today, the series consists of 27 objects. All carrying their own story. The story is read in the shape, the size and in how the material is handled. The story can be interpreted through the positioning of the work in the space and in relation to us.

Aspiring with a light feeling, heavily laying, laying on a shelf a bit too small, lifted up on legs a bit too thin, jammed against a wall, placed near us, as if it wants to communicate.