DISCONTENT MIRACLES

Duo exhibition MISCHIEF
at Röda Sten Konsthall

13.06.26 – 23.08.26

In this new work, Hammar began their exploration in dialogue with aghili/karlsson, focusing on the historical roots of nationalisms in relation to gender non-conforming characters and events.
Moving away from the space of monumental drawing, Hammar uses this opportunity to simultaneously embody and
explore alternative spaces of freedom through the technique of woodcut.

We don't see the motifs immediately upon entering the room, since they are bounded by
gargoyles: motifs borrowed from Gothic architecture whose function was to divert rainwater and protect buildings from damage.

The gargoyles seem equally grotesque and mind-liberating here, and we are invited to explore how discomfort and pleasure are blended in the various situations exposed.

The motifs range from references to the necropolitics (politics of death) of historian and political theorist Achille Mbembe, anti-apartheid demonstrations between 1948 and 1994, protests by IRA prisoners in the late 1970s, to the Act Up AIDS (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) at the White House in Washington in 1992.

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