Innovative Artists: Mats Pehrson

Inseparable Companion

From a bird’s eye view position, the habitants of a vibrant and diverse city are being captured and caught on camera.

Isolated power from above, a voyeur watching without being watched or noticed.

An endless dense stream of people, or rather from this vantage point, merely objects passing by. In an anonymous urban environment, together but disconnected, there is the one common denominator - their shadow - the inseparable companion.

With this new series of paintings Mats Pehrson continues his journey using New York City as a source of inspiration, this time depicted from above.

His otherwise familiar city images are being scaled down or even rejected, instead focusing on the people and their shadows, visualized on painted, tarnished grounds, symbolizing the concrete streets and sidewalks. A street sign, a shop window, bold graffiti or a traffic light show hints of urban surroundings.

A variety of images show business people  - Pehrson´s studio is adjacent to Wall Street - emphasizing them being simply objects, or pawns in a game.

The perspective of a bird’s eye view stresses the presence of the shadows and with the unusual angles gives a powerful and graphic, in parts even eerie feeling.

A shadow is an area where direct light from a light source cannot reach due to obstruction by an object. It occupies all of  the space behind an opaque object with light in front of it.

Mythological Connotations

An unattended shadow or  shade was thought by some cultures to be similar to that of a ghost.

It is also believed as an alternative construct that shadows are in fact a representation of God's presence around an object; like a  halo.

Early eastern beliefs also play to this theory. For example Vishnu (a prominent Hindu god) would appear to help followers by assisting with tasks by lending some of his extra arms to assist the burden of the person.

Pehrson currently resides in Chinatown, Manhattan, and is continually affected by his observations of life in New York City, incorporating them with the influences from constantly traveling abroad. Having exhibited heavily in Sweden, Pehrson is making an effort to show more of his work in the United States, as he has lived and been inspired by New York City for more than 20 years.

[Article and Images Courtesy of matspehrson.com]