© FG2
Klara Källström & Thobias Fäldt and Thomas Sauvin have been rewarded Hasselblad Foundation’s Large Photobook Grant of 2021 and the book will have its ”Sweden-release” accompanied by an exhibition together with the gallery project FG2 at Föreningsgatan 2 on June 22, 17:00-20:00
Exhibition period: June 22 – July 22, 2021
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A project by
Klara Källström & Thobias Fäldt and Thomas Sauvin
Klara Källström & Thobias Fäldt and Thomas Sauvin
Designed by
Axel von Friesen & Michael Evidon
Axel von Friesen & Michael Evidon
Essays by
Daniel Palmer
Johannes Wahlström
Daniel Palmer
Johannes Wahlström
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FG2 has been generously supported by Gothenburg Arts and Cultural Affairs Committee for the exhibition and book launch
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About On This Day:
On This Day revolves around two archives; one consists of a collection of date-stamped everyday images from Beijing, China, taken between 1985 and 2005. The other archive is the Euro-American website onthisday, which maintains a daily register of interesting world events – seen from an Euro-American perspective. The artists have paired the date-stamped images with events of that day from the website creating a clash in the combination of the amateur photography archive from China and random events in the west.
On This Day revolves around two archives; one consists of a collection of date-stamped everyday images from Beijing, China, taken between 1985 and 2005. The other archive is the Euro-American website onthisday, which maintains a daily register of interesting world events – seen from an Euro-American perspective. The artists have paired the date-stamped images with events of that day from the website creating a clash in the combination of the amateur photography archive from China and random events in the west.
Excerpt from essay by Daniel Palmer:
“Every image suggests a story. But Sauvin never wanted to be the sole author of the archive, and constantly seeks new perspectives on it in collaboration with others. Swedish artists Klara Källström and Thobias Fäldt are logical collaborators, given their publications have also sought to excavate complex layers of history and explore the gaps between what is visible and knowable. (…) By using the date stamped photographs to drive their investigation, one readymade archive driving the other, they force together two incommensurable sources of incomplete information about the world. ‘Two inadequate descriptive systems’, as Martha Rosler might say, the gap between them complicating the self-evidentiary claims of each other, revealing their obvious omission and biases.”
“Every image suggests a story. But Sauvin never wanted to be the sole author of the archive, and constantly seeks new perspectives on it in collaboration with others. Swedish artists Klara Källström and Thobias Fäldt are logical collaborators, given their publications have also sought to excavate complex layers of history and explore the gaps between what is visible and knowable. (…) By using the date stamped photographs to drive their investigation, one readymade archive driving the other, they force together two incommensurable sources of incomplete information about the world. ‘Two inadequate descriptive systems’, as Martha Rosler might say, the gap between them complicating the self-evidentiary claims of each other, revealing their obvious omission and biases.”
Excerpt from essay by Johannes Wahlström:
”Much like libraries of the past, search engines are the arbiters of knowledge in the digital world, albeit functioning in a free market economy. In order to generate profit from our search for information, these engines have created a set of algorithms that per definition feed audiences with the lowest common denominator of relevance for the greatest amount of people. Paired with a self-perpetuating reinforcement. Or another way of putting it: different people can be interested in different information, but if cats are universally appealing, cats will be prominently displayed. And if there is a demand for cats, algorithms will provide with even more cats. This is the equivalent of food stores displaying candy in the most prominent shelves, expanding into other sections, and gradually replacing all other goods as the most appealing, self-reinforced, lowest common denominator amongst consumers.”
”Much like libraries of the past, search engines are the arbiters of knowledge in the digital world, albeit functioning in a free market economy. In order to generate profit from our search for information, these engines have created a set of algorithms that per definition feed audiences with the lowest common denominator of relevance for the greatest amount of people. Paired with a self-perpetuating reinforcement. Or another way of putting it: different people can be interested in different information, but if cats are universally appealing, cats will be prominently displayed. And if there is a demand for cats, algorithms will provide with even more cats. This is the equivalent of food stores displaying candy in the most prominent shelves, expanding into other sections, and gradually replacing all other goods as the most appealing, self-reinforced, lowest common denominator amongst consumers.”
Exhibition period: June 22 – July 22, 2021