We sit down with Joakim Eneroth to explore the depths of Blinded by the known, the internationally acclaimed photography exhibition that looks into the fabricated realities of the human consciousness. WORDS: ERIK SEDIN, PHOTOGRAPHY: JOAKIM ENEROTH

On August 18, we opened the doors to a new season at Picture This Gallery in Stockholm. The main exhibition Blinded by the known has attracted curious photography lovers, and we’ve seen a busy couple of weeks with filled-out floors for the exhibition’s Stockholm debut.

Swedish photographer Joakim Eneroth has decorated the majority of our 750 square metre space with 40+ photographs, paintings, and analogue three-dimensional holograms, the latter of which Eneroth invented. We grabbed ahold of Eneroth during one of his visits to the gallery to hear more about the exhibition.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE BLINDED BY THE KNOWN?

“Blinded by the known is the final part of a photography trilogy about human consciousness and human awareness. And in this last part, I’m investigating the filter of subjectivity. To explain briefly, we all have the experience of being aware. The problem is how we also have a mental fabricated reality. We have psychological projections that we kind of stick to the ordinary reality. So the whole exhibition is the investigation of my psychological projections on reality and what is ’real’ in itself.”

“I thought this could be a place where my exhibitions with these 3D holograms really could work because they demand space and the galleries in Stockholm are usually relatively small.”

AND HOW DO THE ARTWORKS SHOW DIFFERENT FILTERS OF SUBJECTIVITY?

“We can look at Subjective Veil and Subjective Veil 2, which shows that the veil of subjectivity is melted into your experience all the time. When I was a child, I had a real difficulty learning to swim. I was the only one in my school who couldn’t swim, so I would sit alone on the bus to the swimming pool every week. So my psychological projections around pools at the time were a bit terrifying. I did not have an easy relationship with swimming pools.

“That’s why Subjective Veil is very dark and could be perceived as intimidating. But if we look at Subjective Veil 2, that very same pool and landscape is very bright and could be seen as pleasant. And that reflects how I love swimming, and especially winter bathing, now that I’m an adult. Exactly the same pool can also cause very pleasant, beautiful feelings, but the object hasn’t changed. The psychological projections you put on it are the only thing that’s changed.”

Just lay yourself down 1, 3D hologram

YOU’VE ALSO EXPERIMENTED WITH DIFFERENT ANALOGUE TECHNIQUES TO MAKE THE PHOTOS STAND OUT, QUITE LITERALLY.

“I have invented a new technique, which is to make 3D holograms that aren’t digital in any way. They are really large 3D effects that come from a lot of analogue experimentation, it took me over four years to get it right. I discovered that from maybe one out of twenty photographs, it would work to separate the foreground out from the background, and I couldn’t figure out why. It was so frustrating. Some motifs I was so in love with and they didn’t work at all as 3D. I won’t tell you the secret of how I then discovered which ones actually work, but simply put you separate an object from the background, and with a little help of special perception, I know how to place it in terms of distance from the background.”

“These 3D holograms have been a success in Europe. When I exhibited them at the CCA Art Museum in Mallorca, I was very intrigued to see that all the visitors started to take selfies inside these holograms. They loved to stick up a hand or a head, and their friend would take a photo inside of my artwork. So it became a trend there. And now I’m really happy to exhibit these large holograms here in Stockholm.”

Picture This Gallery

AND SOME OF THE ARTWORKS ALSO HAVE SPRAYPAINTED MOTIFS ON THEM, WHAT DO THEY MEAN?

“I started experimenting with graffiti stencils and sprayed-on figures to explore our awareness and consciousness, and how psychological projections hypnotize us. It’s a kind of expression of how you suddenly become aware of how you are projecting things onto reality. These figures that are spray-painted onto a real landscape first melt into the environment, but they suddenly pop out in a subtle way and you start to wonder; ’are they painted or originally part of the photograph?’. And I like this question because then you’re starting to question your experience of reality.”

“So it’s been a big experimentation of which figures fit into which photographs. Because I want to have it still quite etheric and subtle, not too overt.”

“So the whole exhibition is the investigation of my psychological projections on reality, and what is ’real’ in itself.”

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE PICTURE THIS GALLERY TO HOST BLINDED BY THE KNOWN FOR ITS STOCKHOLM DEBUT?

“I’ve been busy exhibiting at museums and galleries abroad, I have artworks in the Tate Modern Museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York, MEP in Paris and different large institutions that have enough space that my artworks demand. Stockholm has been my hometown for eleven years, and I thought to myself for a number of years if I shouldn’t do an exhibition in Stockholm. When I came back to Stockholm in January I learned about this new space called Picture This, and I just thought it was amazing when I first saw it.”

“I thought this could be a place where my exhibitions with these 3D holograms really could work because they demand space and the galleries in Stockholm are usually relatively small. And then I talked to the directors and they loved the work and were just as keen as I was to exhibit.”

Blinded by the known, spray paint on photograph