By the Root 2018

Editor: This is Erik Thor Sandberg’s "By the Root," an oil painting from 2018. It has this very surreal, almost unsettling quality. What do you see in this piece? Curator: This painting feels like a layered exploration of identity. The conjoined figures immediately bring to mind questions of intersectionality—how different aspects of identity like gender, race, and class can be interwoven and sometimes in conflict. What does the title “By the Root” suggest to you? Editor: It makes me think about origins and growth, like the figures are somehow connected to a common source. Is there a particular significance to the way the faces are layered or the nude form is presented? Curator: I think it challenges the traditional gaze often associated with the nude in art history. It asks us to consider whose gaze is being represented and how the subject is taking ownership of their own image. The fragmented faces could symbolize the multiple, sometimes contradictory, facets of a single identity shaped by societal pressures. Do you notice the yellow flower that one of the figures is holding? Editor: Yes, but it's being held upside down. Curator: Exactly. Perhaps hinting at a disrupted or perverted potential for growth. And even questions if the conventional ideas of growth is beneficial for everyone, in all conditions. There’s a very deliberate tension between beauty and something slightly unsettling, forcing us to question our own perspectives. Editor: I hadn’t considered how many layers of meaning could be embedded in what initially struck me as simply surreal. The conversation about identity and intersectionality really reframes the piece for me. Curator: Absolutely. Art at its best invites us to continuously re-evaluate our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. It reveals the many perspectives that exist beyond our own limited point of view.