itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog

Amanda Moström, itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog, Rose Easton, 4 May – 10 June 2023

Amanda Moström

‘itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog’

4 May – 10 Jun 2023

Extracts taken from a conversation between Richard Francis and Amanda Moström

RF: So what about the keyholes? Yeah, where did they come from?

AM: I’ve shown you those books, haven’t I? The old Japanese magazines, well, I suppose it is pornography.

AM: It comes back to the place of the erotic simply being a way of figuring out where your urgencies are at, and where you feel motivated to the degree of wanting to do something wholly and with passion and lust, and it being like, such a source and such an energy, I think that’s my forever hunt to try to get my head around.

I think that that’s what I have witnessed with my nan. Seeing someone create and make for their own sake, the way that nan was making work, and her engagement with it, it’s very similar to masturbation, it’s for no one else’s sake and no one’s ever gonna see and no one’s ever gonna capitalise on and no one’s ever gonna ask for, no one’s ever gonna know of.

Like, it’s, it’s a completely sort of sacred moment just for her. And I think for me, that is always something that I’m so, so hungry to be sniffing at and keep active with.

My obsession with it is because I’m quite a melancholic person, I have reoccurring depression and often struggle with my own urgencies day to day. So anything that could be a mine of a sort, to excavate the gold of individuals urgencies and kinks if you like. Everyday kinks, yours, my mums, the neighbours, it’s intriguing to me and I’m in awe to see and witness these.

AM: I want to talk about the keyholes in the show, I started working with Alpaca fleece when I was living at the farm, and it was a material that I had an abundance of, and quite quickly I developed a relationship with the tactile handling of a raw material.

As the alpacas are my sisters I know when they’ll get sheered, I have seen the seasons and weathers the fur has been in, I know the bodies and beings of the fur personally which makes handling the raw material an intimate experience.

When I first started working with the Alpaca fleece I was trying to recreate skins, but doing so on canvas, using the sheered fleece and gluing it onto canvas. Then I was spending lots of time brushing and grooming the fleece, treating it like precious and attentive barber time I would spend hours and hours and hours brushing and trimming the fleece, so that became a quite an endearing process.

RF: Quite an erotic relationship. Brushing and grooming, it’s very stimulating that kind of process.

AM: And a very loving act to spend so much time brushing and cutting and shaping. And with the keyholes I knew I wanted to use alpaca and I knew I wanted it to be furry but I wasn’t sure if it was gonna be groomed or if it was gonna be wild. And I think my decision has been to leave them un-groomed. I see a bush. I see pubic hair, I see protection for genitalia, for orgasm. It’s a real protective frame for what is to be seen in the keyhole.

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Amanda Moström (b.1991, Umeå, Sweden) lives and works in London. She received her BA from City and Guilds, London in 2016. Selected solo exhibitions include: Participating in a chair, Castor Projects, London (2019) and Matriarch beach, Galerie Chloe Salgado, Paris (2019). Group exhibitions include: SEX, Rose Easton, London (2022); Under the volcano, Studio Block m74, Mexico City (2020); Room 237, Bubenberg and Contemporaines, Paris (2019); Hopp och Lek Pt.2, a collaborative project with Lucas Dupuy at Block House, Tokyo (2019); Architecture of Change, Void Gallery, Derry, Northern Ireland (2018) and Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Block 336, London (2017). In 2022, Moström had a solo booth presentation, Don Joy, with Rose Easton at NADA Miami. itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog is her first solo exhibition with the gallery.

Photography by Theo Christelis

Amanda Moström, Prosit, 2023, Pennie’s fleece, wood, UV printed aluminium, velvet, 95 x 72 x 11 cm

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Amanda Moström, Prosit, 2023 (alternative view)

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Amanda Moström, Prosit, 2023 (detail)

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Amanda Moström, Bless You, 2023, Kakan’s fleece, wood, UV printed aluminium, velvet, 95 x 72 x 11 cm

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Amanda Moström, Bless You, 2023 (alternative view)

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Amanda Moström, Bless You, 2023 (detail)

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Amanda Moström, itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog, Rose Easton, 4 May – 10 June 2023

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Amanda Moström, Encore; Again, Once More, 2023, Grandmother’s photographs, fish tank PVC sheet, artist frame, 85 x 60 x 3 cm

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Amanda Moström, Encore; Again, Once More, 2023 (alternative view)

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Amanda Moström, Encore; Again, Once More, 2023 (detail)

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Amanda Moström, itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog, Rose Easton, 4 May – 10 June 2023

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Amanda Moström, itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog, Rose Easton, 4 May – 10 June 2023

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Amanda Moström, itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog, Rose Easton, 4 May – 10 June 2023

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Amanda Moström, Teeny (1), 2023, silver-plated bronze, 3 x 6.5 x 3 cm

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Amanda Moström, Teeny (1), 2023 (alternative view)

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Amanda Moström, Teeny (1), 2023 (alternative view)

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Amanda Moström, Teeny (2), 2023, silver-plated bronze, 5.5 x 3.5 x 3.5 cm

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Amanda Moström, Teeny (2), 2023 (alternative view)

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Amanda Moström, Teeny (2), 2023 (alternative view)

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Amanda Moström, Teeny (3), 2023, silver-plated bronze, 3.5 x 3 x 4 cm

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Amanda Moström, Teeny (3), 2023 (alternative view)

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Amanda Moström, Teeny (3), 2023 (alternative view)

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Amanda Moström, Teeny (4), 2023, silver-plated bronze, 4 x 7 x 4 cm

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Amanda Moström, Teeny (4), 2023 (alternative view)

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Amanda Moström, Teeny (4), 2023 (alternative view)

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Amanda Moström, itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog, Rose Easton, 4 May – 10 June 2023

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Amanda Moström, itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog, Rose Easton, 4 May – 10 June 2023

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Amanda Moström, itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog, Rose Easton, 4 May – 10 June 2023

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Amanda Moström, itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog, Rose Easton, 4 May – 10 June 2023

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Amanda Moström, Encore, 13-89 7., 2023, Grandmother’s photograph, fish tank PVC sheet, artist frame, 30 x 30 x 3 cm

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Amanda Moström, Encore, 13-89 7., 2023 (alternative view)

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Amanda Moström, Encore, 13-89 7., 2023 (detail)

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Amanda Moström, Encore, 4-9-91 4., 2023, Grandmother’s photograph, fish tank PVC sheet, artist frame, 30 x 30 x 3 cm

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Amanda Moström, Encore, 4-9-91 4., 2023 (alternative view)

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Amanda Moström, Encore, 4-9-91 4., 2023 (detail)

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Amanda Moström, Encore, 01-09-02, 2023, Grandmother’s photograph, fish tank PVC sheet, artist frame, 30 x 30 x 3 cm

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Amanda Moström, Encore, 01-09-02, 2023 (alternative view)

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Amanda Moström, Encore, 01-09-02, 2023 (detail)

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Amanda Moström, itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog, Rose Easton, 4 May – 10 June 2023

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Amanda Moström, No Joy Without Mourning (Warm but not Flushed), 2023, Audio made with Joseph June Bond, perforated rose grill, 40 minutes

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Amanda Moström, No Joy Without Mourning (Warm but not Flushed), 2023 (alternative view)

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