About the art
Anna Odell's exhibition consists of the video installation Rekonstruktion – Psyket, which transports us to the closed world of the psychiatric clinic with the old mental hospital in Ulleråker as background. The exhibition also includes a series of staged photographs featuring a life-sized dummy.
About the video installation
A group of psychiatric care professionals discusses an ethical dilemma. A carer and a patient have entered into a relationship, resulting in pregnancy. The re-enacted discussion is based on the artist’s personal experience.
Through telephone conversations with her early carers, medical records and their absence, the artist tries to understand why the people involved behaved the way they did 27 years ago. With her characteristically terse imagery and specific narrative approach, Anna Odell unravels a story.
Fragmentary memories are tested, enhanced and scrutinised in re-enactments and authentic conversations. The work is a labyrinthine voyage through the corridors of memory and the delicate mission of psychiatric inpatient care.
Anna Odell’s personal story is at the core of this examination of how the individual, but also the staff team in general, are affected when boundaries are crossed. What are the limits for personal engagement when dealing with a seriously ill human being? Anna Odell’s baby turned out to be her salvation from illness and her way back to society.
Staged photographs
Through a series of staged photographs featuring a life-sized dummy, she has also processed her medical records from her time as a psychiatric inpatient. These images present a tender revisit to a period when the artist was seriously ill and in need of care. The detached and concise lines from her medical records contrast with the painful memories.