Excerpt from press release

In the exhibition Deposits, Sara Bjarland reflects on issues of waste, dirt, and traces that we as individuals leave to our surroundings. In several sculptural and wall-based works, she explores how “worthless” materials from the household can function as important carriers of meaning.

In her works, Bjarland often uses discarded materials and objects that she finds on the street. In the exhibition, used floor mops, dirty ventilation pipes, and textiles from worn pieces of furniture are exposed and take on new aesthetic forms that are both beautiful and repulsive at the same time. For one work, she has tied together hundreds of used floor mops into a wall tapestry where both handicraft and cleaning – undervalued work that is often done by women – are brought together. In a video work, Bjarland observes rubbish heaps on the streets of a large city. In an endless flow of broken furnishings, household items, and empty packaging, the viewer is confronted by the flip side of our consumer society.

The name “deposits” refers both to the earth´s sediments and layers of dirt that have been formed in the household, like soap deposits in the shower. Bjarland is interested in this double meaning: how do our personal lives and individual actions relate to the broader questions of traces that we leave on the earth’s surface? Dirt (or pollution or debris) that we are trying to cover or rinse away, may no longer be noticeable as such, but matter only changes form and never disappears.