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 Pitching penniesLøkken 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. The botany is pinned down and deprived of life, that is the way of it. 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.
