In her work Eva-Teréz Gölin has approached the subject of sustainability from the perspective of consumption for some years. Her exhibition, Speed at Hippolyte Studio, aims to visualise the overconsumption of fossil fuels—how we literally drive in circles and spend vast amounts of energy not only for production but also for entertainment.

To portray these entertainment sites, Gölin has used imagery from Google’s 3D simulation of the world, built through photogrammetry. As in the early days of photography, when impressions on a plate required long exposure times, photogrammetry demands a multitude of moments to render these environments over long durations. This merging of different moments causes objects that have moved from one exposure to the other to be partially dissolved or completely invisible. What remains are roads emptied of vehicles, whose high-speed movements create an appearance of emptiness, and cities almost devoid of human presence.

The final works seen in the exhibition are copies of a copy of a copy. This simulacrum, stripped of details due to the automated process of photogrammetry, gives an augmented sense of presence and a raised awareness of being stuck in old habits. However, during the pandemic, it seems like there is a glimpse of a different reality – the constant consumption was for a brief moment not wholly unstoppable. This experience has rendered the images in a new light. Nevertheless, the artist remains questioning if the speciously perceived emptiness in her pictures will still come to represent a new normal.

Eva-Teréz Gölin lives and works in Gothenburg, Sweden. She has studied at The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, Novia University of Applied Sciences in Finland, and holds an MFA in photography from The Valand Academy in Gothenburg. Gölin’s work problematizes issues of consumption, sustainability, and climate change. Her starting point is the photographic image; often in the form of appropriated imagery, and in recent years, she has used material originating from Google Maps 3D and Street View. Her works have been shown in both solo and group exhibitions in and outside Sweden since 2010. In Finland, her works were recently seen at Kunsthalle Turku in 2021.

Eva-Teréz Gölin
Speed

4–27 March 2022
Hippolyte Studio