Susanne Lund Pangrazio
‘Kaffe på fat (Swedish Coffee)’ £20
‘Out of sight, out of mind’ £500
“These works are part of a bigger series of paintings and books where I investigate
the story about my grandfather and what happened when he got diagnosed with
schizophrenia in the early seventies. I want to believe in magic and I want to believe
in fairy tales and otherworldly occurrences. Maybe that’s why the story stuck to me
when my mum told me the story about my grandfather. Schizophrenia is a horrible
disease and when my granddad didn’t want to take his medications the disease
would take over. Carl Jung talks about how psychosis and schizophrenia can been
seen as the symptoms of when the unconscious breaks into the conscious world
and with its quite chaotic and non-ego centred construction makes us see and
hear things that are not there, confuses us with its presence and with time breaks
our conscious minds down. But, there is something thrilling in the unconscious and
in the subconscious. A vast field of non-knowledge that inhabits us, that resides
inside of us but that are just out of reach for us. Hence, I investigate what happened
to my granddad, Alvar, but also how schizophrenia might be a portal in between
the tangible and the less tangible, a portal in between different universes, but
nevertheless a portal that we can’t control. Just as physicists talk about black holes
and how they might be portals into other universes, but unfortunately too dense for
us to ever travel through. I started to see my granddad’s faith as something more
than just a disease. Could it be something more? Could it be that he saw and heard
things that existed beyond our reach? Would that be more honourable for him than
to be brushed off as a mere schizophrenic? Could the things he claimed to exist
actually be able to break into our own universe if we would just be able to see it?”