Habitus

Gemenskapens Komposition
The Composition of Community

2022 / Photography. Diasec silicone mount, pigment print on acid-free cotton paper / Dimensions: 150 cm high and 500 cm wide, 8 cm deep.

The white cotton underwear of the army are filled with bodies in various performative movements. Thin nylon threads, barely not visible to the eye, hold up the theatrical expressive bodies. Like the skin that holds the body together, the community also holds a firm grip on the group. The work HABITUS – Community Composition depicts a clothing style/code that prevailed for a limited, specific time at the Ljusbacken collective (where the artist grew up) and other progressive groups/communities in the 1970s. The work shows how clothing has been used as a means of power in different ways, in different societies. How costumes are used to clarify a specific affiliation and to reinforce a community. The work discusses issues of classification and group membership and refers to Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus, which in everyday language is described as external condition, appearance, and shape, but also how we create an image of another person. Habitus creates common ways of looking at the world and oneself.