Eva Stenram turns viewer into voyeur for new show

Placing viewer in the position of voyeur, artist Eva Stenram plays with various artistic techniques, found images of pin-ups and retro fabrics to immerse us into the frames of her just launched show Offcut. In one corner of The Ravestijn Gallery sits a chair facing a photograph of a woman bent over a sofa – by covering it in the same fabric as the sofa in the image, we’re taken into its world – we’re sitting on the bed with the woman. Other materials included in the shots hang from the ceiling and the pattern from a checked shirt is multiplied into a large curtain as Stenham uses elements from the images to create something tangible.

References to art history, such as Dada’s cut-up techniques and the Surrealists’ division of the female body, are visible in her work and she uses fragmentation to ensure the images are sexually charged but not explicit. Speaking to Dazed last year, she explained that “by removing, hiding or cropping out faces my work can focus away from the identity and facial expressions of the women and instead focus on other interesting aspects of the photographs: the postures and poses of the body, the interiors and sets that they are within.”

Stenham continues to indulge in questioning what lies beyond the picture and frame, telling us that photography is always an “oscillation between presence and absence – what was within the frame of the image and not, what has been and is no longer.” In this case, pieces of the images are presented in multiple ways, bringing the viewer in to create an uncanny new reality.

Eva Stenram: Offcut will run at The Ravestijn Gallery until 22 October 2016