Climbers

In her sculptures, installations and photographs, Sara Bjarland often uses discarded objects to materially reflect on the world around her, and to investigate overlaps and encounters between the natural and the artificial, the living and the non-living, between the object and organism. Bjarland scans trash piles on the street corners in her urban surroundings, collecting things like dead house plants, pieces of broken furniture, used garden accessories and various household items. The artist sees these objects as leftovers of our consumer culture and as important carriers of value and meaning. In the materia, time is also powerfully present; it has passed through the objects and all that remains is the unwanted, the rejected and the fragile.

The installation Climbers is made of old sun blinds, or Venetian blinds, collected and hung in large clusters from the ceiling. These lifeless objects that are used to block direct sunlight from entering the house, now appear to have a whole new ‘life’ where they seem reminiscent of dead office plants or wilted palm trees. They now exist in a liminal space between life and death, between the object and organism, perhaps being both at the same time. By using familiar, everyday objects in this way, Bjarland tries to conceive new associations and possibilities, encouraging the viewers to look differently at the landscape we humans have left behind.