Miriam Bäckström
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"29 Variations of Light", 2002
Signed Miriam Bäckström and dated 2002 verso. Unique. 29 parts. Cibachrome mounted on glass 38.5 x 48.7 cm per part. Total dimension circa 220 x 320 cm.
Provenance
Aquired directly from the artist, 2003.
Bukowski Auktioner, Stockholm, Contemporary 564, 16 November 2011, lot 279.
Private Collection, Sweden.
Exhibitions
Architekturmuseum, Basel, Switzerland, 2002.
Sölvberget Gallery, Stavanger, Norway, 2002.
More information
The artistic practice of Miriam Bäckström can be described as a study of the manner in which the human psyche perceives the relationship between image and reality. Her early works consisted of photographs of depopulated homes and deserted museum halls – scenographic setups in search of their human characters. This interest, in characters and roles, figures and shapes, and space and its experience, has been of central importance in Bäckström's artistic oeuvre.
During the winter of 2002, Miriam Bäckström conducted a study at the Museum of Architecture in Basel, with the objective of documenting the transformation of light on one of the museum's walls over the course of 24 hours. Subsequently, the museum room was recreated, now as a lit set in the film studio Studio 24 in Stockholm. The cinematographer, István Borbás, then proceeded to meticulously recreate the room and its lighting, drawing upon the photographic documentation from Basel as a reference. During the construction of the set, Bäckström positioned the camera in the corresponding location as in the room in Basel and continued the photographic documentation of the play of light across the room. A total of 29 variations of light were documented. The work incorporates both the actual and the reconstructed location, as well as the actual and the fictional day.
Bäckström's oeuvre from this period can be categorised as part of a documentary tradition, in which the artist seeks out situations that are more or less staged. These situations may include, for example, the sorting and packing of an estate following the recent death of a relative; the requirement of a typical café setting for a film shoot; or the preservation of a stage set by a museum. The images are uncompromising in their directness, yet they are also layered, with multiple strata of fact and fiction. These depictions are characterised by their proximity to reality, which is noteworthy given the absence of first-hand experience.
In 2024, the large textile artwork "Perfect Storm", Bäckström's site-specific work for the City Hall in Lund, was inaugurated.
Miriam Bäckström's work is represented in the collections of the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, the Museum Folkwang, Essen, the Hasselblad Foundation, Gothenburg, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York och Tate Modern, London.