A flowerpot hovers in the space of a dark and empty room with a slightly open door at its end from which strong light emanates. The flowerpot moves in the space as if not abiding by the laws of gravitation. The work is constructed as a loop, and observation of the weightless motion of the object in the space makes the viewer conscious of the weight of his own body, of his being grounded, infusing him with a sense of heaviness.
In order to achieve the effect of hovering in this work, Dahlberg did not use digital manipulation as one might have thought, but rather connected a camera to a model of the room placed within a glycerine-filled fish tank.
Dahlberg, who studied architecture prior to his engagement in art, constructs environments in most of his works that generate an estrangement of the way in which we perceive time and space, deconstructing and expanding our experiential knowledge of the world. “As an artist,” he says, “I can command a space perhaps even more fully than an architect who always has to hand over his creation.”
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