David Molander, Stockholm Cyan, photography, 19 August–25 September 2021

Cecilia Hillström Gallery is pleased to present David Molander’s sixth solo project with the gallery, Stockholm Cyan, which is also his largest gallery show to date. The exhibition marks the 10 year anniversary of the cooperation with Molander, which started with the exhibition Slussen – an urban anatomy at Konsthandeln in 2011.

Stockholm Cyan is a result of many years of research and photographic documentation of all parts of Slussen, including the process of reshaping this important junction in the urban landscape of Stockholm. To continuously revisit this site and its immediate surroundings has played a crucial role in shaping Molander’s art.

Thousands of photographic images of Slussen – close-ups, panoramic views and glances through peep-holes in building fences and barriers – have been intertwined with images of historical paintings of the surrounding waters, putting emphasis on the history of the urban environment. The outsider perspective has been combined with continuous access to parts of Slussen closed off to the public. Molander’s working method may be defined as digital painting and photographic image construction in which he uses computer-generated images as well as point cloud technique.

The title work Stockholm Cyan is based on a photographic documentation, where the digital collage is partly dissolving into painterly abstraction through layers of photographs and computer-generated images. In recent projects, Molander’s interest in the history of visual depictions has influenced his digital collages where historical images are intertwined with photographs, creating a sense of the space and layers of time.

In the work Katarinahissen the landmark construction was chosen as a point of reference for the whole area; an iconic silhouette in the urban landscape. The first steel construction by Knut Lindmark from 1883 was an important symbol for modernist painters like Gösta Adrian-Nilsson (GAN) and Isaac Grünewald. Building on that legacy, Molander’s vast collection of photographic angles and chronologies comes into play in his interpretation of today’s Katarinahissen.

In the series Utsnitt, the peep-holes in the building fences have offered a possibility to revisit a certain spot under constant change, glancing through a physical barrier similar to the shape of the camera lens. The different seasons, light conditions and activities on the site have shaped the cut-outs. It is as the site itself offers a filter for the viewer where the chaos of the changing urban landscape is exposed for a brief moment.

David Molander aims to conclude his work on Slussen with a future public artwork on location. “I see it as my call to complete this monumental artwork and it is my hope that once it’s finished, it will be embraced by the public and the city.”

In the exhibition Stockholm Cyan, it is once again evident that David Molander’s elaborate collages put emphasis on new relationships between visual traces of architecture, history, social environment and memory.