Maria Friberg Creates a Profound Monument to Erna Hasselblad

Swedish artist Maria Friberg currently presents a contemplative show of one video and one photograph at CONNERSMITH. gallery. Storied 20th century Swedish manufacturer of specialty medium-format cameras, Hasselblad AB commissioned the two works, which commemorate Erna Hasselblad, wife of the company’s founder and a little-recognized force in the development of its most famous camera.

The company manufactured the cameras used during the Apollo missions, the only spaceflights in which humans have walked on the moon, none of which included a woman. With this example of gender inequality as her jumping off point, Friberg sets symbols of femininity—in this case, high heels—against a moon-like backdrop—Iceland. The video, called Erna (2014), runs about five-and-one-quarter minutes and depicts two discarded heels that sit close to the water’s edge. As the video progresses, waves roll in, soaking the shoes and covering their outer edges with sand. With the arrival of a slightly larger wave, they are covered completely and disappear.

Rendered in rich blacks and whites, the video brings to mind the steady passage of time and life’s inherent ephemerality. It could be mistaken as an allegory for death or for the debauchery that follows a party: champagne and lost shoes on a beautiful beach. In many ways, the image is as powerful as a Romantic representation as a tragic one. Such narrative is important to Friberg, who explains, “It’s fun that art gets to be more multifaceted, burlesque, symbolic and personally narrated. The art feels more important and politically inclined in a more complex way.”