Peep Show the work of Ylva Ogland
by Amy Smith-Stewart for Tondo Book, 2008

 
PEEP SHOW
THE WORK OF YLVA OGLAND
BY AMY SMITH-STEWART


"...and I thought well as well him as another and then
I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he
asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and
first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down
to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume and yes
and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I
will yes."
---JAMES JOYCE'S ULYSSES
EPISODE 18--PENELOPE

Forty-six small round paintings represent a series of
private performances that trace artist Ylva Ogland's
orgasmic activity through the lens of a mirror. Ogland
reveals her most intimate thoughts, her sexual
excitation, through these works much like the final
and most beloved chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses-the
Penelope chapter-as Molly Bloom lies restless in bed
remembering all her old lovers, trysts and other
sexual adventures-she enjoys privately contemplating,
immensely to the point of orgasm. Like, Molly, Ogland
indulges in a similar journey of self-pleasure as we
imagine her lying on her studio floor with a mirror
between her legs recording the peaks and plateaus of
her sexual self-explorations. And in doing so, Ogland
exposes the most intimate and internal parts of
herself. By extension, the pleasure of looking at
Ogland becomes the pleasure of looking at an other's
pleasures.

These small canvases link us to Ogland as we both
experience/exchange enjoyment through the object of
her/our desire. This reciprocal relationship distantly
recalls Vito Acconci's infamous performance, Seebed
(1972), which posited a comparable attempt to connect
intimately with the viewer by conversing with the
audience
as if they were his lovers. Acconci, concealed under
the floorboards of the gallery, masturbated while the
audience above listened to an audio feed of his
movements and utterances. Where Acconci was present
through his voice, Ogland is represented through her
painterly gestures.

There is a distinct reminder in these works of Gustave
Courbet, particularly, his erotic masterpiece, "The
Origin of the World," 1866. Joyce's Molly Bloom
compares the woman's vagina to a flower: "...I near
lost my breath yes he said I was a flower of the
mountain yes so we are flowers all a woman's body yes
that was one true thing..." If one applies Joyce's
metaphor to Courbet's portrait, then it would
represent the "ultimate flower." In turn, Ogland uses
her own "flower" to proclaim the ability to arouse
both as a woman and an artist.

The series begins with thirteen tondos in
monochromatic gray. Ogland quickly moves to fleshy
pinks, but closes the series with the same muted tones
of gray. The palette evokes a mood grounded in
self-discovery. The earlier tondos appear to be based
on a memory of self-experience while the color tondos
feel closer to life studies. Slightly larger than 4
1/2 inches in diameter the size of the canvases echos
the scale of the mirror. There is a visible distortion
as the reflected image is slightly smaller than
life-size. The round format and small scale make them
appear more object-like, like fetishes. Representing a
singular gesture inextricably linked to a string of
actions, Ogland sometimes portrays her fingers
caressing folds and orifices, while in others her hand
is absent, intentionally making the imagery more
abstract, more like peepholes. Together they offer a
cinematic dimension as the shifts of her genitalia can
be traced through the movements of her hands.

There's the realization in the exploration of self
vis-a-vis the mirror of the existence of an
alternative reality, a mirror reality. In fact, each
work can be seen to represent a multiplicity of
realities. That is the reality within the mirror, the
reality outside the mirror, and the reality the viewer
projects onto her mirror world simultaneously
coalesce. These performative duration-based gestures
reflect the highs and lows of sexual activity.
Self-delectation shared with the "other". Ogland's
painterly virtuosity bestows what could be viewed as
pornographic with an ensnaring beauty.

While in the beginning stages of this series, Ogland
revealed the existence of an alter-ego, Snofrid
(meaning peaceful snow), her mirror twin. So in fact
one is to wonder is this a representation of herself
or her mirror twin? Her own conceptual conceit tells
us that her mirror twin, the object of the mirror/the
reflected image is in fact the object of our/her
desire. Thereby, Ogland retains an authorial role
through the existence of her mediated self. As
masturbation represents the sexual awakening within
one's self, these works articulate the awakening of
the artist within and the arrival/birth of the mirror
self. We can project our innermost desires onto these
objects of desire, but the pleasure remains in the
hand's/the domain of the artist. She retains authority
of the image while allowing us to share in her/our
titillation.

Berlin-New York, April-May 2008