Lisa Liljeström’s air-brushed, often monochromatic paintings exemplify a restless, post-internet story about observing. By digitally distorting an archive of found images, she captures a sense of interiority and intimacy reminiscent of waking up mid-dream and trying to fall back into a self-constructed world. Thus, hyper-focused frames straddle the lines of familiarity and momentarily invite a gaze towards strange details of the everyday.
"My painting practice is about distinguishing fragments, distorting and transferring information from already existing images, rather than creating new ones. I collect images from Google image search, film stills, advertisements and news articles to form a digital archive. This archive covers more than 1.000 digital images. In Photoshop I cut and distort an image before I paint it. I zoom into details and crop the image to delete indicators of time and place. I change the colors to a monochrome scale, both to simplify the paintings and to give an impression of the digital.
While my artistic process relies on routine and dedicated work, it is just as important to try out new ideas and methods. My process is often investigative and to keep a course, I’m asking myself these questions; If I use a reference photo that depicts a specific place, scene or person, how can I distort the image to give my painting a more vague expression? How can I change focus from the reference photos' original narrative to something more universal and relatable?"