The first in an ongoing series reminiscing on childhood memories. Particularly memories of situations or instances that still feel unclear, the artist questions their own intentions in their memories as well as the intentions of others. Was their response reasonable? The work Retrospect is a story about conflicting memories, being unsure what to think or believe about the situation in retrospect.
The artist aims to show other instances in their adolescence where there are moments of confused tension with the past. The first piece was inspired by the artist's childhood living in Sweden (as a Finnish American moving from the US, who was then fully immersed in the Swedish school system). Soon after arriving, the parents of the artist told them and their siblings if other children teased them to speak Swedish that it could be like bullying. Not that much later, a classmate teased them by asking the artist to translate “strawberry” into Swedish, whereby the artist responded, “Jordgubbe” (Swedish for strawberry). The confusion in retrospect lay in the line between childish flirting in the form of teasing or teasing sourced from resentment.
Original size 30 x 29 cm