IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST

Cecilia Hillström Gallery, Stockholm, 2014

Lovisa Ringborg is well-known for her ability to capture an ambiguous world in her photographs, where the border between reality and fiction is blurred.

 In her new body of works, entitled In the Belly of the Beast, Ringborg continues to investigate the subconscious, creating dreamy scenarios and situations. In our dreams, we sometimes experience the uncanny feeling of walking around in a perfect, non-existing, three-dimensional world. Ringborg revisits this feeling, carefully exploring that what we call concsiousness only represents a small fraction of our brain capacity. In one of the key works, The Mirage, a stage is mirroring an idea of a tangible, organised world, overtaken by dark vegetation bursting out from behind and blending in with the romanticized, painterly scenery.

The works in the exhibition are brought together by a sense of the unknown hiding beneath the surface or being camouflaged; muddy waters merging with fairy tale creatures. We are trapped in our hardheaded perception of the world, while dark, subconcsious forces are luring in the background. With references to art history, in particularly the renaissance and baroque era, Lovisa Ringborg is continuing her narrow path between beauty and repulsion.