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Johan ThurfjellThe Other Side
Johan Thurfjell’s art leads straight into big and small mysteries, oscillating between extremes such as dream and waking, life and death, light and darkness. It’s not about the actual opposites but the passages in between – a twilight zone where definitions fail, time is sealed in and people and spirits slip into each other’s domains.
The Other Side is an independent part of Johan Thurfjell’s trilogy on boundaries of various kinds. After opening at Fullersta Gård in spring 2025, it is now presented in a new version at the Nordic Watercolour Museum. In this installation, where the works of art interact, Thurfjell addresses his father’s illness and demise. What happens when reality is erased and memories start to fade? How do we handle the void after someone who is no longer there?
Johan Thurfjell’s works are infused with craftsmanship. He paints, builds and carves wood sculptures with mechanical parts that perform simple repetitive movements. His skilful treatment of paper and various pigments is unmistakable. One wall is hung with rows of framed pictures. The motifs that were painstakingly painted with coffee, are initially invisible but gradually appear like phantoms. The blue curtain, which is repeated in various ways, is a symbolic boundary. A pair of men’s shoes stick out and move under a curtain, as if someone were hiding behind it. The sound of an acorn falling unexpectedly into a metal bucket causes a shudder. Visual and acoustic elements interact in an imaginative scenography that visitors fill with their presence.
A great deal relies on surprise and the power of suggestion. The atmosphere is tense but nothing feels threatening. With a gentle streak of humour, like an air pocket in the serious depths, Thurfjell reassures us that mankind is seemingly superior to anything that could happen. We are standing among the shadows, eye-to-eye with death, without having to fear it. This is amazingly consoling.