The photographs in the series 'Hemma hos mig' (In My Home) by Maria Hedlund, showing in the gallery's lower room, are dazzlingly white, clean and slightly vague. Close ups of familiar nooks and crannies and surfaces from the home. Among others things there is a kitchen fan, the bottom edge of a shower curtain, a door nob and a light switch. Everything is part of a white colour scale, from unbleached cotton to clinical, hospital white. In the ../pictures one quickly discovers remnants of fat, hair, dust and sticky fingers. Almost invisible traces, but once we have seen them there is no escape. Annoyance takes over and we come to a point where we must choose whether to act or not. To turn a blind eye or clean.

'I hörsalen' (In the Lecture Room), is the title of the series in the room at street level. Furthest back in the lecture room, the wall gives listeners the chance to rest their heads a moment. Hours and hours of lectures have left thick layers of deposits until finally it has grown into a repugnant pattern. The lecture room with its orange chair backs is just as gaudy as the home is pale. The public against the private.

Maria Hedlund's work is almost always about small peculiarities and barely discernible dislocations, the familiar which becomes unfamiliar, collecting that turns into a mania. The care taken in a well planned abode with particular spaces for washing ourselves and preparing food. It gave us strict boundaries to stay between, but also opportunities for mistakes. Dirt has become the perversion of our time.

Galleri Index has earlier shown work by Maria Hedlund, who is educated at Idun Lovén, as well as the School of Photography in Gothenburg. A series of typical tourist../pictures discovered from 60's Colorado, were re-worked and part of a group exhibition in 1994. Since then Maria Hedlund has had solo exhibitions at, among other places, galleri Magnus Karlsson in Västerås, Sweden, and in galleri F15's project room in Moss, Norway.

Karina Ericsson Wärn