As seen through her lens Margareta Bergman’s photographic observations appear intricate and tactile. The most trivial objects acquire an enigmatic lustre, and everyday actions suddenly seem crucial. With a distanced, humorous gaze Bergman plays with visual preconceptions and expectations, and gives them an unexpected twist. A sense of loneliness and of being ill at ease in a meaningless world often shines through. The difference between body and surroundings seems to have broken down.
In Glossalia Bergman investigates ambivalent interactions with linguistic constructions. ‘Speaking in tongues’, to which the title alludes, becomes a unifying image – a phenomenon that eludes clear, rational communication. This obscure language arises, sensual and ungraspable, in the tongue as a wet organ. In representations of something organic that arches and glistens, and almost surreal details of body parts and combinations of materials, Bergman comes very close to photography’s own body language. You think you recognize something with your skin and eyes, and you take it away with you like string twined around your fingers. Through the pictures Bergman reminds us how the world tastes and is memorized.
