A big letter with small expectations
Anna Stahn's series of works consisting of letter sculptures, reliefs, and leporellos revolves around exchanges, friendships, and nostalgia.
The letter in the envelope, addressed to a loved one or a friend, is an outdated technology which - even though postal systems in many places are being replaced by digitalized processes - we still recognize as something particularly intimate. Perhaps only for a few more generations, before the icon fades away or transforms into a memory of a slower time.
From the small glimpses of text in the letters, we sense sentences about creation: creating oneself through clothing, style, fan culture, pop and punk culture, and creating and reflecting oneself through friendship. As expressed in the titular work The first attempt at making something together was dressing up and make-believe, the works are a tribute to the urge to create before it was concretized, economized, and systematized.
The works explore the idea of "falling under the spell together" in encounters with music, political movements, counterculture, glamour, and art. About small attempts to express oneself, similar to practicing drawing or learning to navigate the worlds of art and emotions.
Like a youthful drama in a glass of water, or a simple experience that over time is polished, gilded, and magnified into something legendary, the letters are enlarged into something like pop-art icons: a tribute to the nostalgia of friendship and its transformative potential.
Exhibition text by Anna Stahn
The series of works was originally created for the exhibition Venskaber at Sophienholm Kunsthal, 2025-2026.
