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Joanna Rytel

The Seal

Hero Image for Joanna Rytel

Joanna Rytel’s artistry addresses the complexity of power, taboos, pornography, and gender without attempting to deliver a politically correct answer. In her latest work entitled The Seal Rytel tackles a subject that is seldom discussed; namely, the fear, sometimes harbored by a pregnant woman, of harming her growing fetus.

utilizes her body as subject

This fear can plague a woman with obsessive thoughts during her pregnancy. In The Seal Rytel explores the possibility that if such a distortion of reality can arise in the mind of a pregnant woman, than the same woman can convince herself that she has been transformed into a seal, because she believes that seals do not give birth to dead or sick offspring. Rytel utilizes her body as subject in this powerful piece, in order to create a subjective world via her art.

Joanna Rytel (b. 1974) studied at Konstfack from 1999 to 2004 and has since graduation presented a series of controversial video works. In her videos, Rytel has provoked the viewer with various actions such as dancing and stripping for animals, making out with cats, and celebrating a happy abortion on what would have been a child’s birthday. In addition Rytel stormed the Miss Sweden Beauty Pageant during a live broadcast in 2001, which led to the cancellation of the pageant. Rytel has exhibited at various venues internationally including the Berlin International Film Festival and the Centre Culturel Suédois in Paris.

3 x VIDEO
Fotografiska is proud to present 3 x VIDEO, a series of exhibitions, each dedicated to an up-and-coming Swedish video artist. Klara Källström (Sept. 2 – Oct. 9), Joanna Rytel (Oct. 10 – Nov. 13), Johan Wik (Nov. 14 – Dec. 11)