Page 23 - endeavour-annfrossen

Sophie Allgårdh

When the Sea Runs Amok

Infinite expanses of water surround us and the swirling movement of the waves draws us
down into the depths. The tempestuous seascapes depicted in Ann Frössén’s paintings
sometimes bring to mind staircases, but we are not allowed to gain a foothold; instead we
float just above the turbulent water. The scale and the steep perspective are dizzying.

She offers no simple escape and when we grope habitually for safety in the middle of the
picture, the focus is instead on a sun-drenched diagonal movement at the top in a corner
– as if the work were but a section of an even larger painting.

Ann Frössén is not a marine painter or interested in capturing a trembling play of the light,
as the impressionists did. She is peering into the precipice in order to create feelings of
powerlessness, fear and despair. But it is in the sea that she has discovered a healing force.
That grandiosity carries a promise of freedom.

As an artist who decidedly paints from memory, she does not use any photographic
originals or sketches. The colours are mixed directly on the canvas and the starting point
is often velvety soft shades of grey that lead to thin coats of cobalt blue, olive green and
dark-brown umber. Saturated black lines are juxtaposed with glistening titanium white
– the whitest of all the whites.

In Night Mare, it is dusk and the colours have deepened, while on other canvases it may be
early morning and the palette is bleached and diluted. The mass of water sometimes form
dramatic folds, but can also be ethereal and bring to mind finely embroidered lace. At
other times, they are almost flat.

Leonardo da Vinci was captivated by the colossal power of the water and invented canals
and pumping systems in order to prevent the dreaded River Arno from flooding. But he
was also convinced that a human would function in the water and designed diving
equipment that was advanced for its age, with breathing tubes and goggles.

In the closing years of his life, however, he capitulated in the face of the forces of nature
and the water becomes a surface on which to project dark thoughts about devastation
and destruction. In the drawing A Deluge, the explosive water comes to destroy all dams
and carry people and buildings with it, down into the sea. In a similar way, a monstrous
wave catches some fragile craft unawares in Hokusai’s woodblock print The Great Wave
off Kanagawa. But in contrast to Ann Frössén’s paintings, there is land in sight. Mount Fuji
is seen in the distance and will give the boats the protection of the almighty to survive
the heavy seas.

Ann Frössén’s paintings depict a bold inner journey, but also become a reminder of the
role the oceans play in our survival. The sea is the source of all life, but when it becomes
furious and runs amok, existence is on the line thanks to melting glaciers and tsunamis.
This threatens to wipe out, for example, a small low-lying island nation such as Tuvalu
in Polynesia.

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