Week 49 - 2020
Agnete Brun, Sigrid Solbakken Raabe, 2019. Preus Museum Collection
The Girl in the Corner
Agnete Brun has found a personal aesthetic as a portrait photographer. The use of props and symbolic objects in portraiture is a well-known method used by painters for hundreds of years (long before the camera was invented) to highlight the portrayed person's character or status. Brun uses this method within her photography but pushes it much further - making the tradition more apparent, with saturated colours and playfulness.
So, how to portray a grounded pop-musician from Ålesund, whose stage-outfits most often are a white t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans? Music is invisible, and it cannot possibly be shown within a picture. Or could it? We might risk sounding like a fresh musical critic, but Sigrids' music could be compared to multicoloured balloons, such as these. Her songs and their performance are a celebration. Her music invites people who listen to move their bodies. Sigrid is herself looking relatively modest, standing with a slight tilt of the head to the composition's right. Maybe Agnete Brun is referencing 'Dirty Dancing'? If so, we'll have to say it like Johnny: «Nobody puts Baby in the corner». Get Baby out onto the dance floor, where she belongs.
You can also watch an intervju with her on Facebook.