So long we marched together

belted

beaten

brawled

You were the greatest pillow

In the 1950’s, a group of artists was hired to help the military to develop a new woodland camouflage pattern, which later became known as DPM: Disruptive Pattern Material. The pattern houses a multitude of shapes, which might be associated with Gestalten, or characters. Arguably, they are the saviours of many, but also they are accomplices, as their bodies veiled perpetrators in countless conflicts.

Joakim Derlow (1990, Stockholm) has a research field spanning from military-, survival- and observation techniques, seen through the viewfinder of artistic practice and processing. It is through his research field that objects, found items, drawings and himself come together to tell a story of fragmented nature. However, it is only through the associations and perspectives of the audience that the narrative becomes complete.

“My work is a frail attempt to emancipate the shapes and let them roam freely at the Kunstfort peninsula. Perhaps this way they can become characters of their own again, forms for associations, just as their creators must have seen them, that day they were drawn.”

– Joakim Derlow