Line Bohmer Lokken – Angle 4: Kastepastikka

Line B. Løkken takes her point of departure in documentary
strategies, but empties her pictures of obvious action. The specific
place is allowed to appear through isolated objects and tableaux
which represent something larger. In Kastepåstikka (Pitching
pennies) Løkken penetrates to a backdrop of heritage and
memories by way of a place that seems impregnated with human
activity. The motifs appear to be linked to the idea of the humble
cottage. Here there is space for potentially nostalgic bric-à-brac,
but also objects with an unclear practical purpose. Løkken’s title
plays on a typical spring game, and interweaves images of
Scrabble, piles of chalk and an old crossword book. On the
opposite face of the squares and alphabet dice of the Scrabble
box (which quietly spell b-r-ø-l – “roar”) is a horn on which
some tufts of grass have been caught. Maturing, aging and new
freshness play together over the pages, also in tactile and
colouristic ways.
The small picture compartments associated with dated leisure
activities play with letters of the alphabet and the construction
of meaning. A pressed coltsfoot gives you the feeling of peeping
into a herbarium and underscores the sense of space from
another time, preserved for posterity. This close circle of objects
and gestures is familiar, and seems both immediate and bygone.
Perhaps Løkken’s pictures seek a mood that can no longer
be reconstructed in its totality.