JOHAN THURFJELL PUBLISHED AT WWW.ARTFORUM.COM
01.26.06-02.25.06 Natalia Goldin Gallery, Stockholm
The postcard for "Messages to a Friend," Johan Thurfjell's second solo exhibition at this gallery, depicts an imaginary landscape (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, all works 2006) with the following memo on the back: "DEAREST WHEN YOU READ THIS I HAVE REACHED THE FINAL OUTPOST OF THIS JOURNEY. THE AIR IS COLD AND THE SKY VERTIGINOUS. AND ON CLEAR NIGHTS I CAN SEE FURTHER THAN I COULD EVER IMAGINE. /J." This epistolary approach offers a thematic hint of the poetic undercurrents running through the exhibition. At the gallery, the drawing is accompanied by three sculptures, one of which—a small model of an observatory (La Silla)—carries the card's message on its roof. The other sculptures, miniature models of a mine—titled, simply, The Mines—and Patagonia, a dramatic, Grand Canyon–esque landscape, deliver some additional physicality. On top of the canyon, a sentence about the difficulty of focusing without looking ahead marks out a small path, while a message on the third sculpture consummates the show's dialogue between words and wayside terrains. By harmonizing the personal with the universal, Thurfjell strikes a romantic cord without falling into sentimentality: an almost sublime balancing act.