Lina Scheynius perceives the world by turning her eye upon herself. Her body is the seismograph by which she measures the world. She encounters herself by exploring her body. It tells her what she senses. And the camera translates. Direct as these images appear to be, they too are created through the medium of an instrument: the camera. What is it that guides the camera? Is it reason, instinct, or the signals of that (the body) which is being photographed? Is it the motif or the author? Or is it perhaps the camera itself – the “third eye”, the image, that is directing here and becoming autonomous? The issue is complex because, for once, the motif and the author are united here. They are one. The motif and the author are identical. The identity reflects itself. The identity constructs itself by deconstructing itself.
Since Lacan, we have been aware that a mirror image is never identical with that which it reflects. Here, however, it is. And yet, at the same time, it is not. Scheynius’ self-mirroring appropriates her own body by observing it from outside. The divestment and alienation are meant to lead to the self. Images are meant to give insights into what is closest to us: our own body, which we can, after all, see with our own eyes. But evidently, what the image captures is not the same as what the eye captures.
Scheynius says she began photographing herself mainly because she was the most readily available model. However, she is not always alone when she goes in search of herself. Sometimes she is lying in bed with a partner. Sometimes she tries to find herself in the other, by photographing that partner. The partner, as other, reveals her self to her. She sees herself in the other. The way she sees her partner leads her to herself.
We see a hand. It is the hand of the photographer. One hand is pointing towards the other. Behind the hand is a concealed light that illuminates its outline. The inside of the hand receives the light. The camera is directed towards the light, towards the counterlight, but the hand intervenes between light and camera. Photography, which, by its very nature, is sensitive to light, is thus protected from the light by the hand. Without the hand, the light would burn into the photographic lens. At the same time, photography itself thus becomes proof of existence. It proves that the hand is there. That it has a purpose – between light and lens. And yet, it is as though we could almost see right through this hand. Its existence is endangered and fleeting. Photography holds it fast.
We should nevertheless bear in mind that Lina Scheynius not only makes images of bodies. In the nocturnal sway of a set of traffic lights dangling over a bifurcated streetlamp that looks like ovaries, we see how her eye moves over the world. She gets right up close, turning raindrops in another black and white image into round discs that obscure the view of illuminated high-rise windows in a varied range of tonalities and hues of grey, depending on their distance from the lens. Lina Scheynius’ photography explores spaces. From right up close to far, far away.
Some of her images are highly sexually charged. It is still the exception to find a woman portray herself in this way. Her art tells of her sexuality. Her sexuality is part of her – an important part. There is something liberating about the very fact that such an important and often excluded aspect is included here. It takes a lot of energy to maintain a taboo. That burden falls away here. At last, what was once apart becomes a part.
Her work promulgates intimacy. Lina Scheynius’ photography has found its way via the internet into the fashion world and from there into the art world. Most of her followers are young women. Scheynius appears to have opened up a way for them to see themselves. This shy individual, of all people, has disclosed herself to the world by sharing her innermost self – the outer self – with the world.”
Simon Maurer
Simon Maurer is a photography curator based in Switzerland.
Lina Scheynius
25th of January – 15th of April 2017
Christophe Guye Galerie
Dufourstrasse 31
8008 Zürich
Switzerland
