Per Wizén – Trespassers

Per Wizén's second solo show at the gallery Trespassers consists of analogue collages transferred to silkscreen and photographic works. 

Wizén builds intriguing paper collages using fragments of reproductions of historical art works; during many years he was preoccupied with the Renaissance and Baroque era. In this meticulous process, the content of the work shifts in relation to the source, pinpointing hidden meanings and underlying tensions. In his ongoing series of works, Subterranean, Wizén's starting point is Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Using the reproductions of John Tenniel's black and white original drawings for the books from 1865 and 1871 and Disney Magazine's depiction of Wonderland from the 70s, Wizén opens up entirely new interpretations of the relationship between Alice, the characters and the surroundings. In the three large-scale silkscreens Wizén emphasizes the uncanny qualities in Carroll's texts and plays with horror aesthetics alluding to contemporary culture. In the photographic work Blue Suspense based on Disney's scenery, Wizén creates an empty forest both familiar and estranged.

The fascination of Alice and Lewis Carroll's masterpiece lies in how it has influenced, and continues to influence, contemporary culture since the stories were published. With skill and meticulous execution, Wizén's new works use this universal quality like a starting point and transfer the material from the past to the contemporary, capturing all layers in between.