Behind a standardized, white door at Strömsätragränd, a magical world reveals itself. Stepping over the threshold, the visitor finds herself surrounded by a myriad of otherworldly creatures of various forms and sizes. In a corner of the room, a choir of small flowers sings a serenade, led by a cheeky duck and in the opposite end of the room, a thin-limbed youngster – far too tall for his supposed age – looms. The adolescent appears to be sad; perhaps afflicted by the immensity of our ambivalent, modern world?
Artist Joakim Ojanen’s studio is like no other studio you will have seen. A far cry from the carefully curated atelier museum in the Montparnasse neighborhood of Paris, which hosts a reconstruction of Giacommeti’s studio or, in closer proximity to the studio of Ojanen; sculptor Carl Eldh’s Ateljémuseum in Vasastaden, Stockholm.
Over the course of two years, the artist has documented his work in the studio with two analogue cameras. Lumps of clay are transformed into fantastical sculptures while exhibitions are being prepared and works are shipped out to different corners of the world. Outside the studio, seasons seamlessly shift and the rays of sun flickering on the walls firmly follows in both frequency and temperature. Roll by roll of film is sent to the lab for developing and a book is starting to take form.
Next to Daisy’s, on top of the laundry contains 227 photographs by the artist and a text by Jakob Ojanen, artist and brother to Joakim. We dare propose that it is impossible to get closer to the artist than this, at least in a book.
The book is released in conjunction with Ojanen’s solo exhibition at Nanzuka in Tokyo, Japan, in 2022.
Next to Daisy’s, on top of the laundry was awarded the prestigious Svensk Bokkonst price in 2023, selected as one of Sweden’s most beautiful books published in the previous year.
