Ylva Oglands socialrealism
Att göra det osynliga synligt
Ylva OglandMarginalisationRepresentationSocial realismInstallationStill-life paintingNorman BrysonGayatri Chakravorty SpivakJohann Joachim Winckelmann
The purpose of this paper is to analyse how work by Swedish artist Ylva Ogland (born in 1974) function as an eye-opener for the social marginalisation of people identified with homosexuality, prostitution and drug addiction. Although highly present in reality, these phenomena were historically, and are still today, hidden from view in public discourse. I have focused on the installations Rapture and Silence and Things Seen, and the still-life painting called Xenia. I argue that these artworks carefully represent the above-mentioned marginalised groups, by way of references to comparable motives in the history of art, from neoclassicism in France, to realism and romanticism.