“I am intrigued not only by the implied narrative within the transparent frames but also by the aesthetic and conceptual interplay between the softness of the figures, obscured through dirty windows and the hard-edged panes of glass (…) I enter the very private ‘habitat’ of people to capture the visual serendipity and unexpected nuances of expressive non-movement.”
Arne Svenson, The Neighbours, 2016.
In the ‘Windows’ series I painted the daily life of my neighbours as seen from my window. The act of looking which is rendered public in the paintings also exposes the gaze of the voyeur. Because the paintings are created from the perspective of my own home, this sphere is also no longer entirely private.
The bilateral nature of looking is broken down further because of the relationship between the series and the work of Arne Svenson with which it is directly in conversation. When the addition of this third party breaks the illusion of intimacy connected to the act of voyeurism, the question that remains is not only how private the position of the viewed one is, but also what privacy remains for the gaze of the voyeur.
