Nanna Hellberg is a Swedish artist working with video, performance and music. She often uses different artistic languages simultaneously. In the work “Until the Light” she uses photography, without really focusing on the visible, it is instead the abstract, and the organical that is enhanced. Hellberg uses a variety of themes in her work, and there is always a tension between chance and the staged. The performative aspects of her practice are present even in her paintings, as can be seen in “You were born on a black day”, a series of paintings inspired by a song by Spiritualized where Hellberg canalized the energy in the music into the making of the paintings. Hellbergs interest in sound is evident in many of her works. In “Meditations” she experimented with dividing the sound and the visual expression in two separate rooms, thus creating two “stages” dealing with the same theme. The work “Careless love” dealt with questions about physical and emotional boundaries. Nanna Hellberg performs as herself, yet avoiding the autobiographical. Her works can be seen as both private and public. The big questions about life and death are visualised. Hellberg works with frames in all aspects of her practice: the cinematic frame is needed to concentrate the very complicated aspects of love and loss. When documenting a performative act, whether enclosing it in a photograph, painting, or video the act becomes more tangible.  

– Sara Walker