
In Dreams, You’re Free to Relate to Reality as You Wish
An interview with Denise Grünstein by CFHILL’s Paulina Sokolow
In Dreams, You’re Free to Relate to Reality as You Wish
An interview with Denise Grünstein by CFHILL’s Paulina Sokolow
The table is a recurring motif in your photographs. What is its significance in your work?
A table is a surface we can relate to, like a room or a stage. The table symbolises the place and the things you want to focus your narratives on. Empty spaces and surfaces have always been attractive to me, and when I work with smaller objects, a table is a natural place for me to position them on. It’s also a symbol of home, of domestic life. Women’s work. A lot of important conversations are held around tables. They are a gathering point for our relationships. Perhaps this also has something to do with my own upbringing. My need for an anchor in my life. We moved abroad when I was seven, from Finland – our family had Jewish roots and came from Russia – to Sweden. I still carry the dreams with me.
What is it about dreams that interests you so?
In dreams, you’re free to relate to reality as you wish. Photography has a complicated relationship to the unreal. I have to conceal reality to get away from it. The reality I want to create is a parallel path, a journey through the subconscious. I work intuitively, and I like to keep things somewhat open, so that I can surprise myself. I set a table with the various ingredients that interest me, I choose the location for the events, and then I often allow chance to enter into the equation. By chance, I mean ideas that come to you suddenly when you meet people, found objects, or even something as basic as a shift in the light. That’s where photography is at its most interesting. I love to walk around antique shops. A beautiful piece of fabric with a story to tell can serve as the basis for an entire series. My ideas often start out just like that. It’s not until later, when the process is unfolding, that the meaning of whatever I’m doing becomes clear to me. The important thing for me is to be exploring. I don’t want to know where it’s going to lead me ahead of time.

Photo: Denise Grünstein, Renaissance Red, 2018

Photo: Denise Grünstein, Renaissance Yellow, 2018