| Katya Sander | e@katyasander.net |
| Graffiti on Hedges (Safety Drawings) In: 9 1/2 Castles, organized by Stefan Lundgren, Esloev, Sweden 2001 .   There is an area in Sweden (around the city of Esloev) where there are 9 castles not very far from each other. I this exhibition, 9 artists where invited to work in each their castle. Many of the castles are private and had never been open to the public before. The castle I was in vited to work with – Hviderup Castle – has been in the same family since it was build in 1360. The castle looks extremely idyllic; very much like a fairy-tale castle, with it’s bridges and red/pink walls and water and parks and stables and fields surrounding it. I was interested in how a structure which today is mainly seen as a romantic Disney-like settlement, is in its logic based on certain structures for defense: An architecture meant to guard and protect the values inside, and to keep outsiders out. I worked in the park surrounding the castle: A landscape consisting of a strange combination of carefully thought out and maintained fantasies about nature and the “unspoiled outside”, as well as hedges and walls clearly marking the territories and different degrees of privacy and ownership. Inspired by urban phenomenas of street-art I spray-painted different motifs on these hedges. The drawings all derive from state-printed manuals on how to act in situations of disaster; natural catastrophy or war addressing. They address the fear and defense-strategy on which the architectural order is based, but at the same time looking almost Disney-like in their naïve cartoon-style.   
|