Ann-Sofi Siden: Who is invading my privacy, not so quietly and not so friendly

The point at which reason turns against itself and into something like ordered madness is the locus of Swedish-born artist Ann-Sofi Sidén's films and installations. Borrowing from the realms of psychiatry and archaelogy, they "radiate a scary vision of reason run amok: the world is transformed into a gigantic network of surveillance and control." [Daniel Birnbaum, Artforum, Summer 1999]

Sidén's exhibition at the South London Gallery, which represents the first proper exposure the Swedish artist has had in London, will show two works that relate and support one another and which demonstrate the quintessence of her art. These are the installation 'It's by confining one's neighbour that one is convinced of one's own sanity' (1995) and the film 'QM, I think I call her QM' (1997).

The installation 'It's by confining one's neighbour that one is convinced of one's own sanity' (1995) tells the story of real-life, now deceased New York psychiatrist, Dr. Alice E. Fabian. Towards the end of her life, Dr. Fabian believed that her every move was being monitored and that she was being subjected to destructive laser rays by secret and hostile forces. Using the Doctor's surviving notes, diaries, documents, tape recordings, library of psychiatric literature and the measured outline of her bedroom, Sidén's installation charts her attempts to control this onslaught.

Fact and fiction are merged in the film 'QM, I think I call her QM' (1997). The fictitious character, QM, or Queen of Mud, portrayed by the artist herself, has been a mainstay of Sidén's work since 1989. She has featured especially in Sidén's performance and video work and has been described as 'a mixture of Neolithic 'ur-woman' and powerful female mud-wrestler.' Lars Ericsson

In 'QM, I think I call her QM', the two characters, QM and the psychiatrist, now fictionalised as Dr. Ruth Fielding, meet for the first time. This 28-minute long 35mm film sees QM become the subject of the Doctor's paranoid quasi-scientific studies after she is found early one morning under her bed. All communication with the surrounding world takes place via monitors and a speaker-phone. Trapped in her cell of a room, QM too is kept under watch with the aid of surveillance cameras, with Dr Fielding systematically recording her account of her investigations into QM's behaviour. She records: "I see as my assignment to see who she is and what her purpose is." Is QM real or 'the mental projection of someone suffering from a persecution mania and ridden with guilt?" [Lars Ericsson]

Sidén's concerns with the hidden and unremittingly intense aspects of the human condition lend her work an extraordinary potency. This exhibition at the South London Gallery will provide an opportunity for a UK audience to see her work on this dramatic scale for the first time.

Ann Sofi Sidén
Who is invading my privacy, not so quietly and not so friendly?