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Paraphernalia
BY
Åsa Elzén

The video shows a pile of fake pearl necklaces that the artist and her sister used to dress up in and play with as kids. The necklaces that were originally collected by their grandmother were always in a big mess and when trying to pull one out, the whole pile would move, resembling worms or snakes. The video is trying to mimic that situation and the mixture of delight and disgust that it evoked.

The word paraphernalia is a legal term that goes back to times when women were considered being the property of their husbands or fathers. A woman could for this reason never inherit anything from her parents – except for the paraphernalia, which refers to the clothes, make up and pieces of jewellery that used to belong to her mother. With the passing of time the meaning of the word has changed and today it usually refers to any personal possessions of minor importance. 

Aspect ratio 1.33:1 (4:3)
Prod. format Generic SD-video
Duration 00:07:00
Color Color
Year 2000
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About the artist

Åsa Elzén

Born in 1972 in Visby, Sweden. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Åsa Elzén has studied at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, BA 1996, and at the Royal University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm, MA 2002. She has been an artist-in-residence at Changdong Art Studios, Seoul, Jerusalem Center for Visual Arts, Jerusalem, IASPIS, Stockholm and Sanskriti Kendra, New Dehli, among others. She works with video, sculpture, photography and installation and has shown work at Exit Art, New York, Contemporary Art Museum, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, ak28, Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Rooseum, Malmö, and Gwangju Biennale 2004.

She is interested in subjects such as feminism, globalism, tourism, notions of beauty and love.

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