Gertrud
by Maja Daniels
In 1667 the 12-year-old girl Gertrud Svensdotter was accused of walking on water in Älvdalen, Sweden. The event marked the beginning of the Swedish witch-hunts, a period of mass hysteria and horror in Älvdalen and its neighbouring regions.
This series brings the history and myth surrounding these events into the present day and allows the world in which Gertrud lived to be resurrected on new terms, where the outcome is not yet settled.
Within this series I use photography as a tool for mythmaking. Myths are open to interpretations but refuse to be fully locked down. Photographs function in a similar way. The core of what is expressed in an image lies somewhere in the unseen or in its silent associations.
Most of the images in this series are created through interventions in the landscape. I shape my own rituals and create new myths that draw on the elements of already existing ones. They become a way for me to expand on and challenge certain historical constructs and to show how a visual narrative can recreate our relationship with the past, present and future.
