There is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.
― Octavia E. Butler

To make a new, never-before-seen object is like creating a new world or even a new planet or solar system. Like Science Fiction, Theresa Traore Dahlberg’s work plays with visions of alternative futures and new sociopolitical structures. This correlation is manifested in her first solo show at the gallery, including sculpture, glass objects and photography.

A recurring feature in Theresa Traore Dahlberg’s work is the close attention paid to different materials and how they can interact and transform into something else. Traore Dahlberg draws from her personal experience of being anchored in two sociopolitical cultures, Sweden and Burkina Faso. Her installations, glass works and bronze sculptures result from various historically and personally charged materials or objects, that have been altered through different processes and become infused with new meanings and stories.

Traore Dahlberg has collaborated with a bronze foundry in Burkina Faso and developed sculptures based on the Senufo bird figure and African fables. The bird’s shape is inspired both by Futurism and her grandmother’s stories. A Senufo bird refers to the physical and intellectual aspects of life, signifying intellectual power in particular, but also alluding to the dual forces of the male and female. Cast in the same bronze foundry is Hakili – The Hare, a series of bronze sculptures inspired by an enigmatic hare that Traore Dahlberg found in the collection of The Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm. Hares are common protagonists in African folktales, often playing the role of the trickster who uses cunning to affect larger and more powerful beings, thus humorously shaping the outcome of the narrative.