29 november 2024, Flor Linckens
Grotesque and rushed: the absurd world of adults through the eyes of children
Galerie Stigter Van Doesburg in Amsterdam presents 'Dinner', a solo exhibition by Josefin Arnell that runs until 11 December. The Swedish artist is best known for her video works, but her multifaceted practice also includes performance, installations, drawings and poetry. With this exhibition, Arnell explores the possibilities of photography for the first time, complemented by works on paper that seem to exist within a similar, unsettling universe.
Arnell’s work balances between documentary and fiction, often focusing on social dynamics, remarkable power relations and societal structures. Her characters grapple with the pressures of perfectionism, control, politics, family dynamics and social expectations, while larger themes such as climate change linger subtly in the background. Despite these weighty subjects, Arnell’s work is often infused with humor — sometimes grotesque, absurd or unsettling. Recurring figures such as the teenage girl, the mother and the horse lend a sense of familiarity to her oeuvre. Arnell frequently collaborates with non-professional actors, resulting in unpolished, unstudied and raw performances that heighten the emotional and vulnerable aspects of her themes.
Drawing inspiration from the world around us — ranging from current events and (art) history to both high and popular culture — Arnell’s work is at times confrontational. In earlier projects, she posed complex questions about societal structures and human interactions. At the Van Abbemuseum, she presented a giant mutant tick as a metaphor for the impact of human intervention on the environment. Her documentary "Mothership Goes to Brazil" (2016) examined her complicated relationship with her mother, interwoven with themes of addiction and spirituality. In other works, she combined elements of horror, reality TV and pop culture, such as a blood-smeared, grinning girl with braces or a child sitting beside a severed female head. In her current exhibition 'Big Bad Wolf' at Konsthall C in Stockholm, Arnell employs the logic and imagination of fairy tales to explore law, punishment and morality through the eyes of a child. This blend of humor, absurdity and biting social critique lies at the heart of Arnell’s practice.
With the exhibition 'Dinner' at Stigter Van Doesburg, Arnell presents her first foray into photography. Where her video work often revolves around movement and narrative, this series uses static images to explore complex ideas, with each functioning as a film still. Here, she examines the friction between youth and adulthood, as well as the phenomenon of ‘adultification’: the imposition of adult behaviour and responsibilities onto children, often before they are emotionally or mentally ready. Some children are forced to grow up far too soon, often with lasting consequences. Arnell delves into the uncomfortable relationship between childhood and adulthood: children are all too eager to become adults, while adults often long for the carefree days of their youth. At the same time, Arnell raises critical questions about how children are treated in our society, with particular attention to the tensions between personal care and structural inequality.
In this series, children are depicted in a nostalgic, glamorous setting: an elegant, stately restaurant evoking a bygone era. The kids assume roles of forced adulthood, dressed in business attire, with exaggerated makeup and painted wrinkles, sipping martinis and striking theatrical poses. During the creative process, Arnell observed how the young performers gradually created their own world, their playful interpretations of aging and adulthood clashing with her initially darker vision.
What at first appears to be slapstick and comedic reveals a sense of discomfort upon closer inspection. The adult world is grotesquely magnified as hectic, high-paced and suffocating, driven by work, luxury and social pressures. The table is strewn with decorative and extravagant food — halved artichokes, oysters, scallops and lobsters —, lip gloss and car keys, alongside unsettling details such as larvae, a red chicken claw and scattered crumbs. Together, they seem to form a caricature of adult excess. Interspersed among these chaotic still lifes are vanitas-like symbols that underscore not only the fear of aging but also the erosion of youth and innocence.
The children perform their roles with a bitter irony: they appear hurried, drunk, and unimpressed. One child furiously talks on a smartphone, while another seems to have passed out at the table. Arnell interweaves classical painting, soap operas and Christian symbolism, using objects like an hourglass and a pink breast pump to explore themes of mortality, gender and bodily autonomy. The children are power-dressed in a way that reflects how they imagine adults to behave — one character wears no less than three watches and an oversized tie.
This exaggeration lends the images a poignant edge: they show not only how children try to comprehend adult codes but also how these become distorted into an uncomfortable imitation. The result is a grotesque, stifling reflection on societal expectations of adulthood and the anxieties these provoke. Simultaneously, the images reveal how shallow and confusing these ideals can appear through a child’s eyes. Arnell invites viewers to critically reconsider how we define youth and adulthood and how these concepts shape one another.
Josefin Arnell was born in Ljusnedal (Sweden) in 1984, but she has lived and worked in Amsterdam for many years. There, she earned a Master’s degree in Dirty Art at the Sandberg Instituut and completed a residency at the prestigious Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten. In 2018, she received the Theodora Niemeijer Prize, and in 2023, she was nominated for the Prix de Rome. Her work has been shown at the Stedelijk Museum, the Frans Hals Museum, rencontres internationales paris, WIELS in Brussels, and during the IDFA and Athens Biennale.
