Emma Sarpaniemi’s first gallery show in Sweden opens in NEVVEN in Gothenburg on January 30. The exhibition “Two Ways to Carry a Cauliflower” is on view through March 9, 2025.
Two Ways to Carry a Cauliflower is Emma Sarpaniemi’s ongoing performative photography series exploring women’s self-portraiture through play. To free the subject and the gaze from certain patriarchal ideals of femininity, the subject depicted in the images is portrayed playfully and tenderly as a woman who behaves, looks, and performs on her terms and rules.
Through play, Sarpaniemi envisions possibilities for new ways of existence and influence. In her universe, identity, reality, and imagination intertwine. Sarpaniemi stages the scenes, selects the clothes, and designs the self-portraits herself. The starting point is often an object, or a piece of clothing found at a flea market, from which the artist begins to construct a photograph.
The photographic series comprises a combination of home studio portraits as well as scenes captured in domestic settings and outside. Between public and private space, it presents moments of intimacy and play, where the viewer is brought closer to the subject’s world and imagination.
The exhibition is a collaboration between NEVVEN and PhMuseum in connection with the festival PhMuseum Days International Photo Festival.
Read more about the exhibition
Read more about Emma Sarpaniemi
Emma Sarpaniemi: Iiris Blooming (2024). Courtesy of the artist and Helsinki Contemporary.
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