Times of Transition (2025)
In the exhibition Brytningstider (Times of Transition), there is no constructed scenography, only nature serves as the backdrop. On the short wall of the exhibition room, a different scene has been transferred onto a photo wallpaper that, in large format, depicts another coastline. The seaside location is Skagsudde, Skeppsmalen, outside Örnsköldsvik. Skagsudde is a weather station featured in the Swedish marine weather forecast.
A mirror placed on a cliff reflects an image of nature that otherwise would not fit within the frame. The mirror is the only prop visible in the exhibition. A white-clad, lightly dressed figure stands with his back to the camera, gazing out over the sea. He sees what we see. He helps the viewer to look deeply into the image through his own gaze. What lies out there? Is it longing? A look toward the future? The figure senses the weather conditions with his body — a physical, sensory data collection, similar to the marine weather report, but without conveying the experience further. The landscape as a motif is shown as it is — but from a chosen perspective, a selected starting point. Have we chosen our current position, placed ourselves in a situation that forces us to break away from our familiar way of life? Collectively and partly unknowingly, lacking knowledge and understanding probably yes. Brytningstider suggests that something else is approaching. One era has passed; another is coming.
What is this transition?
Today, many of us are trying to relate to climate change — to remain calm, not to be overtaken by anxiety and fear. Many of us are doing what we can not to accelerate the change — and yet it is happening. It is ongoing climate change. Now, the task is to endure. Climate change leads to climate transitions.The time of transition could represent a new mindset, referred to by politicians and the media as the green transition. The green transition is supposed to lead us to a fossil-free society — yet with the same or even increased electricity consumption. It is a time of transition, an attempt to break from what is and step into something else.
“Something else” that might be an older kind of knowledge — one that has been pushed aside by the advance of technology. A knowledge that is no longer passed down to our children as we adopt urbanized life patterns.A knowledge of nature and of how we humans can live with nature, not off it.
And yet, we small but many have disrupted nature’s systems, thrown them off balance in pursuit of growth. We have blindly captured nature, or tried to control and tame it to fulfill our striving for economic capital. Stridsberg shapes nature into a backdrop that reminds us of our relationship with it. Mining and the forestry industry are one aspect; nature tourism is another. Our approach is an expectation that nature will perform for us — give us experiences that we can share digitally with others. We expect nature to show its best side on the specific day the calendar marks for hiking or skiing.
On that day, we hope for pleasant temperatures, the right amount of wind and cloud cover, to give us the experience we anticipated. Otherwise comes disappointment. It may have been too windy, too cold — it might even have rained (heaven forbid). Clouds and fog might obscure the view from a mountaintop, and waves might crash against the rocks with water that’s far too cold. Stridsberg’s light clothing remains, regardless of the weather.In the deepest snow, the white underwear is covered with blue jeans. No jacket, gloves, or hat. The body in the cold — a vulnerable position. In the now-proposed geological epoch, the Anthropocene, it is human impact on Earth that governs the climate.
During the Great Acceleration (considered to have begun after World War II), socioeconomic trends have contributed to systemic changes in Earth’s systems, which in turn have raised the global average temperature by 1.2°C since the pre-industrial era. The rate of species extinction is accelerating, and humans — one species among many — are affected by climate change and disturbances in Earth’s systems. The marine weather report is there to soothe us to sleep with its cello composition.
What can awaken us into active change toward a sustainable future?
The exhibition Brytningstider by Peter Stridsberg was shown at Örnsköldsvik’s Museum and Art Gallery, December 6, 2024 – January 25, 2025.
Diana Berntsdotter Vallgren
https://nyavalor.se/brytningstider-en-essa-om-vader-med-utgangspunkt-fran-peterstridsbergs-utstallning/
- Ebba Lisberg Jensen, “Ecological literacy and the abstraction of nature relations in the Anthropocene,” in Kulturella Perspektiv, (2016:1), p. 20.