Fossil; Satellite View (Rohingya villages being burned) September 15, 2017, 2018. C-print mounted on plexiglass. Print size: 15 7/8 x 19 7/8 inches (40 x 50 cm); Plexiglass size: 17 1/4 x 19 7/8 inches (43.8 x 50 cm)
Fossil; Unattributable Social Media Record (Hurricane Maria, site possibly Puerto Rico), September 10, 2017, 2018. C-print mounted on plexiglass. Print size: 15 7/8 x 19 7/8 inches (40 x 50 cm); Plexiglass size: 17 1/4 x 19 7/8 inches (43.8 x 50 cm)
Fossil; Site View I (Macedonian Army vehicles moving between razor wire fences on Greek border near Gevgelija) February 14, 2016, 2018. C-print mounted on plexiglass, 15 7/8 x 20 1/4 inches (40 x 51.4 cm)
Fossil; Site View (Marsh, Great Kills Park, Staten Island) May 24, 2017, 2018. Pigment print mounted on plexiglass, 17 1/4 x 19 7/8 inches (43.8 x 50 cm). Edition of 3
Fossil; x4 View (Secreted nasal mucus from mucous membranes) December 14th, 2017, 2018. Pigment print mounted on plexiglass, 17 1/4 x 20 1/4 inches (43.8 x 51.4 cm). Edition of 3
Fia Backström (b. 1970, Sweden) is an artist based in New York, NY. Working in diverse mediums including photography, writing, installation, and performance, Backström agitates the social life of language and materials. Her practice maintains a longstanding inquiry into the glue of collectivity. Backström’s first solo exhibition at Callicoon Fine Arts, entitled A Vaudeville on Mankind in Time and Space, was on view in 2018. Recent solo projects include The Shape of Co- to Come at ABF, Stockholm (2016), and ME have to be turned upside down to become WE at Zinc Bar, New York (2014). She has participated in group exhibitions at institutions such as MoMA PS1 (2015), MoMA (2010), and the Whitney Museum of American Art (2008) in New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2010); and Tranzit, Prague (2008). Backström was the subject of a survey at the Artist’s Institute in 2015 and represented Sweden in the 54th Venice Biennale (2011). Her work can be found in the collections of Moderna Museet and the Whitney Museum.
Fia Backström and Pradeep Dalal will conduct the panel, "Some proposed strategies on how to situate images by building context beyond representational pointers: presentation, discussion, and exercises" as part of Pratt Institute's conference, "Teaching Photographs."
2:00–3:30pm
ARC D7
Fia Backström will re-stage FLUID SITES_HAUNTED DEBRIS: VIRTUAL, POSSIBLE, VISCIRREAL with Mariana Valencia. The performance debuted at Callicoon Fine Arts on March 31, 2018.
Geoffrey O'Brien penned a comparative review in The New York Review of Books of Aniara's many forms (opera, film, and novel). Fia Backström's project is mentioned.
Building upon our past four year engagement with topics concerning estrangement, individuation, collectivity and art and politics in cognitive capitalism, Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art 2019 will focus upon states of consciousness.
Fia Backström is included in Garden Tales: Contemporary Swedish Sculpture, with Christian Andersson and Linda Pedersen. They have in different ways challenged the history and tradition of ideas of the Thiel Gallery in this exhibition which revolves around activism, climate issues, virtual reality, changes of perspectives and fictive characters.
Fia Backström will be reading from COOP A-Script (2016, Primary Information), which contains two performance manuscripts.
Worker Through the Ages (2010) is a constructed environment and event by Fia Backström, in the collection of Moderna Museet.
The White Columns 2019 Benefit Auction will be held on Wednesday, May 29 at the gallery (91 Horatio Street). The event begins with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at 6:30 p.m. This will then be followed by the live auction of selected lots, which will begin promptly at 8pm. The silent auction featuring works by more than 80 artists will close in stages shortly after the live auction.
Fia Backström is included in In Real Life, a group exhibition with Steven Baldi, Barbara Bloom, Liz Deschenes, Craig Kalpakjian, and Brandon Lattu.
Fia Backström will give a performative lecture on Nobel laureate Harry Martinson’s 1956 epic science-fiction poem, Aniara, which chronicles a flight from a decimated Earth into deep space. The inspiration for film, opera, and theater works, Aniara is one of Sweden’s most influential literary treasures. Backström will be joined by translator and writer Kira Josefsson.
Northwestern University
Kresge Hall
Evanston, IL
5pm
