Ragnar Persson
Vitvattnet
26.01—03.03.18

Vitvattnet is a further exploration into the world in which Ragnar Persson (b.1980) and his inspirations reside. Persson’s interest and obvious infatuation with nature could be attributed to long childhood summers spent in Sweden’s northern parts where nature possesses it’s own sort of agency, or it could simply be a character trait of someone who is quick to recognize a potential for enthrallment.

Persson gathers inspiration for his work almost as if he is foraging for treasures in the woods, he tends to base his drawings on models, which are often photographs that he takes himself. He then arranges these influences into what could be seen a personal mythos, a world full of characters and entities that may seem mystical but are, to Persson, recognizable as being close to him, in one way or another.

In Vitvattnet Persson has populated an unnamed forest with various phantasms. Circling this perceived little community is a stone wall which can be seen either as protection against the outside world or as an enclosure which keeps the mystical forces inside of it at bay. Persson’s forest is neither real nor pretend, it is just as much a concrete place filled with the artist’s memories and experiences as it could be a mapping of an interior milieu where reality’s rules and limitations need not be applied.