Through twelve different artistry, environments, landscapes, places, phenomena, and forms are presented. The exhibition exposes poetic images with a view towards the far- or almost documentary reports from our close surroundings. Kerstin Svanberg works with the environmental issue in her powerful works on paper, how can we make use of the earth’s resources together? By collecting cotton and linen that are transferred to paper, she creates beautiful artworks where she founds her strength to keep on working. Through the work as a biologist with a focus on climate in Södertälje municipality, Ebba Jordelius has closely followed the changes in nature. Through the climate and social commitment to the local environment, the importance of the place becomes tangible in her art. Julia Adzuki currently lives in the forest outside Järna and creates in harmony with nature. In her art we meet the trees and their souls. In the work of Hilma Franzon and Jörgen Franzon, contemporary and historical beliefs are mixed in the story of the forest and its important role in our ecosystem. The forest as an interlocutor – and the sadness and the search for a magical forest that no longer exists, are depicted on a large scale in Södertälje konsthall. The interest in plants and the flora that surrounds us is palpable in Lisa Jeannin’s work with medicinal plants, alchemy and artistic processes. In the exhibition, she shows several small artworks that are the result of a fast and intuitive work with perishable materials directly from the local area of ​​Järna and Mölnbo. Olivia Plender participates with a series of watercolours representing plants historically used by women for medicinal purposes. The plants are found in various everyday urban places, including by the side of the road, in an underpass or at the local supermarket. Annika Lindfors studies her nearby environment in Mölnbo, where the local flora means everything to her pictures. She dwells in the landscape and depicts trees, branches, leaves, fields, watercourses, reflections, and skies. Not far from Mölnbo, in Ytterjärna, Helena Piippo Larsson has her studio. She works with landscape painting, which also represents an inner landscape and a mental place. Kersti Rågfelt Strandberg’s watercolours depict nature as a healing power. The waywardness of the watercolour shows care for all forms of life, where both the spontaneous side of the paint and the more careful technique get the opportunity to sprout. Birger Svanteson captures the unbridled form of nature in his photographic images. Since 1969, he has visited Gotska Sandön 74 times and documented this with his camera. A careful close-up study of a place in constant transformation. Åsa Elzén lives and works in Näshulta, Sörmland. She shows parts of the work Notes on a Fallow – The Fogelstad Group and Earth that explores the legacy of the queer feminist Fogelstad group formed in 1921. In the work, the “the Fallow ” plays an important role both as method and metaphor, locally and globally.

The exhibition includes works in many materials and techniques, sculpture, painting, drawing, mural painting, ceramics, and photography. Most of the artists have their geographic location in Södertälje and the surrounding area; Mölnbo, Järna, Trosa, Näshulta. Welcome to this year’s summer exhibition at Södertälje konsthall!

Text by: Maja-Lena Molin, Artistic Director, Södertälje konsthall