Divided into two sections – cityscapes and landscapes – ‘So near yet so far’ was a photography exhibition at the End of the Line (Overtaci Fields) made in August 2019. The works I exhibited there explored both urban scenes and landscapes, images that were part of my “emotional geographies”. The visual documentation was created à la dérive, as a result of me walking in the streets of Aarhus and revisiting Brazil, my home country.
‘So Near Yet So Far’ relates to how we feel about and how we connect to our environment and personal landscapes. It is about stretching boundaries and re-inventing trajectories while becoming present (in) and aware of all that surrounds us. It is a visual inquiry concerning the complex emotional geographies that constitute our memories, identities and everyday life.
“A journey implies a destination, so many miles to be consumed, while a walk is its own measure, complete at every point along the way.” – Francis Alÿs
Alongside the exhibition, visitors could see a video installation made by VHS-Fabrikken, a project by me and Kasper Lauritzen screening both pre-recorded material and videos that were produced during the exhibition.
READ the interview “Emotional geographies in So near yet so far” by Selma Vital
Dystopian Landscapes, 2019-2020
The endless search for something
In this series, if you look carefully, you might see a photo where the tale of a fox, that is just about to hide, is appering in the center or look at a sidemirror of a car, a familiar image to us all, but instead of seeing the usual streets and sidewalks, now what you see is a pile of ropes that somehow disturbes our expectations.
The fox wants to play
The tons of plastic waste produced by the marine industry acquire a strange physical presence, when put together. It becomes part of a dystopian landscape. Despite its colossal scale, its presence and form is always changing as the material will be transformed into green plastic in Northwest Jutland, Denmark and more is yet to be delivered.
There is something both beautiful and horrifying about these images. Some of the ropes could have ended under the sea, others are here carefully disposed. The human condition, our condition, pressuposes a constant desire for things. But how far can we go? What else is under the sea that we cannot see?
Står på tæer under vand, 2020
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