« Mindi ; My Indian Flower »

2005
Collages of DIN A4 Ink-jet Prints
245 x 170 / 225 cm

2009
Pencil Tracings
DIN A4

All images used are of
Parminder Nagra and
found on the internet.

Photographers unnamed.

Courtesy of the internet.

The title of Björnsson’s work on the actress Parminder Nagra contains a twofold uncertainty of meaning. Mindi, as he calls her, is not an Indian; she’s a British citizen of Indian descent and it is unclear – to say the least – to what extent he can call her “his”. Ambiguities such as these form a central part of Björnsson’s work. Like any other fan, Björnsson trawls the net for pictures of her but rather than skip from one picture to the next, as most people would do, he decides to pore over only a handful and to trace them on tracing paper and/or blow them up to gigantic size. Equally mannered in style and conveying an air of artificial “spontaneity”, these images are supposed to depict the actress as a real person, as opposed to one of the characters she plays in her films.
This play with the real and the performed is an underlying theme in Björnsson’s works. He takes an active part as a recipient or user, claiming ownership not of the photograph but of the icon.