Interventions, New York 2002
Photograph: Janna Holmstedt
SATURNUSMANNEN (SATURN-MAN)
Photography in light box
About the project ”Saturnusmannen” (Saturn-man) 2002:
SATURNUSMANNEN
When I was a child a knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up: A super hero in New York. But as I grew up in a small village in the north of Sweden these plans were met with grave mistrust. My dad was eagerly trying to separate terms like ”hero” but none of the other options seemed even remotly as interesting. My older cousin, Micke, descided to help and made me a super hero gun, carved out of wood, with fins and a picture of Saturn on the handle. His mother made a matching costume. This new uniform didn’t convince my village but I knew New York would understand.
I was in New York for the first time in 2002. I was compelled to put my old fantasy to the test and I made a replica of my old costume. I tryed it on a couple of locations on Manhattan but it then ended on the roof of a federal building. I had heard of a beautiful water tank on that roof and wanted to climb it. I got stuck in the metal detectors on the way in but made it, and then sneaked through the video monitored corridores before I fund a way to the roof. I got changed, put in my muscles and got out.
”Now lift the gun” the photographer said. I refused. We were but blocks away fron Ground Zero only a year after the attack on World Trade Center. I was not going to lift a gun. Just take a few fast shots and lets get back in, I tried, but she refused. The other – much higher – federal buildings was towering above us. I was thinking of what to say to the FBI as they arrested me. And how could my dad explain to the people in our village that I was in an American prison?
When the photographer was finally done I knew I would never use the costume in New York again....
But maybe my childhood village would be safer?
Exhibition: ”Bombastic”, group exhibition, Studio 44, Stockholm, Sweden Link>>