Throughout her career as an artist, Swedish Anna Odell has been preoccupied with queer power relations. She often talks about her own bad experiences both as a patient in psychiatry, but also as a victim of bullying at school. When Odell is now presenting an extensive exhibition at the Trondheim Art Museum, she is once again taking her audience back in time. Central to this exhibition, which embraces both sculptures, installations and films, is the film “Reconstruction Psyket.” There she tries to recreate a picture of what happened around a stay she had in a psychiatric hospital almost 30 years ago. PROVIDER: With the film, Anna Odell moves into ethically demanding waters between fiction and fact. Here she not only betrays herself, but also several others. Not least, I wonder what her son thinks about having his origin story conveyed in this way. Photo: Lili Zaneta On the trail of lost time Anna Odell is a controversial and critically acclaimed artist and film director. I was excited when I sat down in the dark museum hall to watch her new hour-long two-channel film. In her narrative, she weaves together staged and documentary elements. Here we are told a strong and rather shocking story. During her hospital stay, the 21-year-old psychotic patient was drawn into an erotic relationship with one of the male nurses at the hospital, which led to her becoming pregnant. LONELY: I think that the image of the lonely corridors shows the isolated and confined feeling of being admitted, not only as a prisoner in a coercive decision, but also as a prisoner in a despairing mind. Photo: TKM In the film, this shocking fact is conveyed, among other things, through interviews with former nurses and doctors at the hospital, and among them the man himself, who thus became the father of the artist’s first children. The fact that no one reported the relationship, and that almost all record keeping stopped when the situation became known, are also shocking details that come to light. Odell nevertheless describes the whole thing as a blessing. The child became her salvation, and a way into something much better. UPSTYR: In 2009, Odell reconstructed the dramatic admission in 1995. She acted psychotic and pretended to throw herself off Liljeholmsbron in the center of Stockholm. Only after she was both forcibly confined to a belt bed and medicated did she say that it was all part of her exam project at Konstfack. Something that resulted in a big debate, and a trial where she was sentenced to a hefty fine. Photo: Scanpix / SCANPIX SWEDEN With the cock as a therapeutic tool The interview of the male carer is among the more sensational parts of the film. We see Odell listening attentively, while in the interview he describes his role as a self-effacing helper. He talks about tarot symbols and strange dreams and draws rather startling parallels to both Odin and Jesus in his description of this sacrifice that he felt called to make! In the film, we often see Odell’s face as she listens to voices over the phone. She interviews many people who visited the institution while she was admitted. Her face shows vulnerability and fear as they describe their experiences. It is special to see her listening to the male carer with whom she had children. Although she gets upset when he says it wasn’t love, she probably knows that this will be a spectacular part of the film. Photo: TKM It is undoubtedly a strong story that is conveyed. It’s almost like I can’t believe my ears when I sit and hear him say that for him it wasn’t love, it wasn’t about his own feelings or desires, he decided to make this sacrifice to save a sick, young woman (!). I hardly think he will find many colleagues who will support him in the fact that using the cock as a tool is a very good therapeutic solution. Purely as a film artist, the work would probably gain quite a lot from stricter editing. I am quite sure that she could manage to convey the substance of this strong narrative far more intensely and condensed in half the time. IN COURT: Anna Odell together with her lawyer Claes Borgström during the trial in 2009. Photo: NTB The balance of power between children and adults Anna Odell has in many of her works dealt with vulnerability. In the exhibition, she takes on a quite different role in the balance of power in one of the works. She has created quilted sculptures of herself and her youngest son, as well as a photo series in which they both act in relation to the lifelike dolls. Here she thematizes the terrifying power parents have over their children. The children are like clay in the adults’ hands. The fact that the figure is patched together from different materials gives the large doll a skinless, but also hardened feel that points to the vulnerability and strength that bad experiences give. Photo: Lili Zaneta Parents shape their personalities and the world of foresight. It is strong how she has referred to her own body as a patchwork of different textiles, as a picture of all the wounds and scars she herself carries with her from a long and demanding life. While the body of the young son is intact and for now without scratches. A longing to be heard In the last room of the exhibition, “Accident Commission” (2013) is shown. A work in which the course of action before the hospital admission is unfolded. In a film projection on the wall, Odell has a conversation with herself about the pain and despair linked to the bullying she was subjected to growing up. In another film, Anna Odell has a conversation with herself in front of a table with chairs around it. The furniture is carefully glued and wallpapered together after being broken into small pieces. As in so many of his works, Odell tries here to patch together, repair and heal something that has gone wrong. Photo: Lili Zaneta In addition to the film, the project consists of a table with chairs around it. The furniture is thoroughly patched and glued together after being smashed into small pieces. Perhaps it is a picture of our eternal impulse to want to repair what has gone wrong inside us. After a few hours in Anna Odell’s intense, self-examining universe, it is a strong redeeming feeling to get out into the fresh autumn air. Although Odell in her art goes in the same autobiographical circles again and again, she manages to convey something general about power and vulnerability, and about the longing to belong in a community, based on her own life. news reports Title: “Anna Odell: Rekonstruktion Psyket” Curator: Johan Börjesson City: Trondheim Kunstmuseum Time: 5 October 2024 – 9 March 2025 Estimated time spent in the exhibition: 60 – 90 minutes Published 04.11.2024, at 11.54
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