What Comes Around Goes Around

BENDIXEN CONTEMPORARY, 2007

Featuring an animated film installation, works on paper and paintings on canvas the exhibition will highlight the various media Westerberg works within and the themes that run throughout. The contemplative installation “Skoven” consists in a cave-like structure with a narrow entrance wherein only a few visitors at a time can experience the 9 minute long animated film in an artificial forest with a landscape of solid glass illuminated “ mushrooms”, which become reminiscent of small ghosts or dream-like visions of jellyfish. The film is seen as if one was lying on the ground, looking up into the sky, and as the film brings the viewer through the day, the cheery sound of signing birds turns to a silent forest night. As the darkness grows, the abstract yet natural sounds become almost frightening, thus it is the sound combined with the lights, colors and crawling pace that allows the story to unfold and allows the viewer to enter a space for new meanings and states of mind.

Moreover, Westerberg is interested not only in the psychological aspect of the work, but also the physical factor, and therefore the staging of the work allows for different angles and positions in viewing that each yield new experiences of the work.

The paintings and works on paper bring the themes found within the animated film full circle, as a figure within each work experiences or enacts what has taken place in the forest while the landscape becomes a reflection of the figure’s state of mind. Pictorial depth and physical proportion are critical elements in the paintings, as Westerberg creates a space for reflection and engagement.