The Visible and the Hidden
(from the exhibition catalogue The Geography of Surfaces Academy of Fine Arts 2026)
The cover of this catalogue features one of Linda Hofvander’s latest works, in which she has placed curved metal sheets on top of differently coloured podiums. The bending allows the sheets to stand on their own even though the metal is relatively thin. On one side, a black-and-white photograph is mounted across the entire surface. The other side consists instead of bare, polished metal, which in several cases makes the surface function as a convex mirror. In optical terms, convex mirrors spread the parallel rays of light that hit the surface away from the focal point. The effect is that whatever is reflected in the mirror is reduced and stretched—like the visual impression produced when looking through the viewfinder of a camera with a wide-angle lens. Since the podiums are arranged in such a way that the work acquires, in a certain sense, a front side, the reflections only appear when one moves around the sculptural group. What happens is that the distorted reflection of the room becomes integrated into the work, while the mirror also causes the objects to change constantly depending on the viewer’s position in relation to the piece.
The interplay between the static and the changeable is also present in the entirely new work The Lakes. It consists of mirrors cut into the shapes of enlarged eyeglass lenses placed on blue, low podiums. As one moves in relation to the mirrored glass, its appearance shifts from a light and opaque surface to one that reflects everything above it—including the viewer who, confusingly enough, sees themselves staring straight up at the ceiling. In Linda Hofvander’s case, calling these podiums “podiums” is misleading, as they form part of the sculpture itself.
Aesthetically and expressively, Linda Hofvander’s works can be seen as part of a minimalist tradition. Here we find an emphasis on the materiality and agency of the objects, the reduced and concentrated form, the works’ interplay with their surroundings, and the systematic or serial arrangement of the works. These qualities are especially evident in a work whose components have individual yet related titles such as The Floor, The Table, The Stairs, and The Window. The piece is characterised by its hybrid nature—part textile, part photography, and, in an expanded sense, also painting. The size of the flat, geometrical, and predominantly monochrome compositions reinforces their surface-oriented character, yet seen up close, the physicality and tactile qualities of the motif also emerge. Despite its formalist aspects, the images and sculptures have a strongly biographical side, embodying memories of both a childhood home and close relatives who are no longer alive.
The recurring thread in Linda Hofvander’s work is partly the interplay between the visible and the hidden, and partly the elusive and ambiguous sense of space—both within the images themselves and in the interplay between the works and the places in which they are shown. The catalogue produced for the exhibition, with the well-chosen title The Geography of Surfaces, can be regarded as yet another space. Through its shifts in scale and sequencing, this slim booklet offers entirely different ways of seeing and experiencing the works than in the gallery. One becomes aware that the printed matter does more than merely document the exhibition already from the cover image, which is a negative with inverted tonal values and altered colours. The shift is a deliberate defamiliarization that disrupts habitual ways of seeing. The simultaneously restrained and effective way Linda Hofvander sharpens the viewer’s attention can be described as an artistic method, but it also bears witness to how her works function—or rather act—within a space and in the world.
Niclas Östlind, Professor of Photography at HDK-Valand: Academy of Art and Design