Self-Portrait

Cecilia Edefalk belongs to a celebrated group of internationally acclaimed contemporary Swedish artists. Several years in Berlin in the 1990s (well before the arrival of many other Swedish artists) led to solo exhibitions at galleries and art institutions in Cologne, Kiel, Frankfurt, Zurich and Bern. Probably best known as a painter her body of work however, as pointed out by Estelle af Malmborg (in ‘An Image is an Image Is an Image’, article in: [Eds.] Cecilia Edefalk & Estelle af Malmborg, Photography 227 Months / Fotografi 227 månader, 2017), “is very much characterized by a photographer’s eye”. Af Malmborg continues:

Photography has been present in her work in different ways ever since her first solo exhibition at the end of the 1980s, where she showed a photograph with light as its main focus alongside a number of paintings. And it is light, as well as an increasingly pronounced interest in existential questions, which since has become central to her work.

In Self-Portrait the celebrated artist, behind acclaimed iconic works such as Another Movement (1990), Baby (1986 – 1987) and Dad (1987 – 1988), turns her gaze on herself. In connection with the exhibition Moment at Moderna Museet in Stockholm (2011 – 2012), Self-Portrait was included as a significant part of a wall installation with Edefalk’s photographs. The exhibition’s curator, John Peter Nilsson, wrote the following at the time: “In the photograph ‘Self-portrait’, Cecilia Edefalk stands with a revolver in her hand, pointed at me as a viewer. In the other hand, she is holding a camera shutter. At the very moment when the image is being constructed, the revolver is pointed at a camera. When she aims at the camera lens, she snaps a self-portrait”. Nilsson then continues: “Edefalk questions the veracity of a photographic portrait. But not knowing, or rather, not being able to choose which image of oneself one wants to live with, one’s own or others’, creates an emotional quagmire.”

This view is shared by Daniel Birnbaum, who wrote the following about Self-Portrait a few years later (in ‘Self’, published by Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, London on the occasion of the exhibition Time and Memory: Cecilia Edefalk & Gunnel Wåhlstrand, 23 November 2011 – 12 February 2012):

She aims at the lens, at us, and shoots. In the 1993 photograph “Self-Portrait”, Cecilia Edefalk is holding a revolver in one hand, aiming at us viewers. Her other hand is holding a camera trigger. The moment the picture is taken, the revolver is pointing directly at the camera. […] The approach is typical of Edefalk. […] “Self-Portrait” […] revolve around the issue of whether a portrait can ever capture the real or true self – if indeed such a thing exists. […] Edefalk appears to be threatening to shoot herself the moment she takes the photo. Thus, she is apparently erasing herself […] and explicitly challenging the veracity of photographic portraits. 

Cecila Edefalk herself has stated:

I've always felt uncomfortable in photography situations. When I look back at all the photographs taken of me or taken of other people, I know that it does not represent the actual situation but something else. I wanted to show the camera’s idea – or threat. In the photograph, I point the loaded gun at the camera with my right hand and press the trigger with my left. My facial expression came naturally: I’m right-handed and was afraid to pull the trigger on the gun by mistake. In fact, I do not threaten the person looking at the photograph or the photographer: there is no one behind the camera, I am just shooting the photographic image of myself.

Provenance

Private collection, Sweden.

CFHILL, Stockholm, Ten by Ten, 11 November – 2 December 2022.

Firestorm (acquired from the above).

Literature

(Eds.) Cecilia Edefalk & Estelle af Malmborg, Photography 227 Months / Fotografi 227 månader, 2017, compare similar (but later) print (1993/2011), illustrated full page, as well as spread in colour (depicting the installation view Moment, Moderna Museet, 2011). Compare also group of prints (Self-Portraits, 1993. Gelatin silver print, 8 x 28.3 x 19.5 cm), illustrated full spread.

Copyright Firestorm Foundation