Stark, sleek, hard, cold, metallic, seductive, shiny, and out of this world–this is the foundational vocabulary I use when approaching Erik Thörnqvist’s body of work, currently on display in the pristine gallery space of Bonniers Konsthall. However, I have around 700 words to describe beyond what you vividly see and feel, yet also to invite you to engage with the insecurities that come with the freedom of subjective analysis and mindful interpretation.
Other Dead Giveaways A flower, a fruit, facial hair, jewellery, a piece of clothing – a giveaway to help the ones with a broken gaydar. This collection – an array of day-to-day objects – is displayed on custom-made podiums, all holding symbolic meaning in public/ private context and LGBTQIA+ history, as signifier objects that help us to find each other in the shadows. It is what we today read as queer aesthetics before it got refined and blended into mainstream culture by the 1990s metrosexuals. The texts on the labels are fictitious diary entries written and edited by AI.
Un chant d’amour A homage artwork in reference to Jean Genet’s only film- isolates the famous scene of cigarette smoke migrating between two sides of a prison cell wall through a thin straw. Although filmed in 1950, it will still take your breath away. It captures an enduring thirst for love and touch in solitary confinement – pure desire and tenderness. Discreetly, one can go and place one’s face on the fumes and fantasise about being fantasised about.
Standmaschine Previously described as a deconstruction of the European Modern project, these humanised chairs embody the intersection of contemporary and classic design. As popularity leads to replicas bought by the unaware, we must question: does authenticity matter? Ultimately, the furniture confronts us with its aesthetic qualities, challenging its intended functionality. Politics of a Hole Is part of a series of sculptures that reflects the historic shift toward white tiles in domestic spaces and promotes an aesthetic of absolute cleanliness while also hinting at the anonymity of public sex. These artworks reinterpret the glory hole, integrating it into tile designs with smooth curves that highlight the oppressive aesthetic of Folkhemmet.
Finook Language can unearth hidden, dark histories. The homophobic slur Finook, from Italian finocchio (fennel), dates to a time when gays were murdered and burned in abundance in Europe – they used fennel to mask the smell of burning flesh. What does the casting of a bulb of fennel mean – like an industrial trompe l’oeil for a fake fruit bowl – a never-rotting vanitas where death doesn’t happen?
Krasch This pre-construction hybrid combines 3D scans of classic artworks, forming a fragmented, modern-day Greek god hero. It echoes the composition of Goya’s etching, This is Worse, from The Disasters of War, which features a dead man inspired by the Belvedere Torso. Art history teaches us that the most beautiful pieces are broken fragments, like the remains of Greek sculptures – a melancholic reminder of a glorious past that highlights what is forever lost.
Vaseline Vision The blurred abstract photograph, taken in Los Angels, near the infamous Vaseline Alley, captures a detail of a knock off ”Tom of Finland” T-shirt spotted in a shop window. The artist visited one of the most legendary cruising spots in gay history only to discover an empty parking lot. You can interpret this as an aestheticisation of All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt souvenir reflecting an attempt to glorify an experience of detachment.
Abseiling to a Gay Beach On the Côte d’Azur, there is a historic gay beach accessed through a corner of a traditional family beach. The journey involves navigating dangerous boulders, cliffs, and jagged rocks. The final stage of the 30-minute trek requires the abseiling of a five-meter rope, here recreated as an artwork. This representation can be a broader metaphor for the challenges marginalised groups still need to face today.
Before / After Is a found object – an illustration of what seems to be the moment before and the moment after (dinner). The Pictures Generation gesture of appropriation is shown surrounded by work that requires heavy labour. Reminiscent of a 1980s advertisement, it evokes a sense of romantic conceptualism.
What happened?
Something
that
changed
everything.
Image: Erik Thörnqvist, Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation Grant Recipient 2024. Photo: Jean-Baptiste Béranger
