Molly Börjlind

There are objects that do not demand attention. They belong to everyday life, resting within their contexts, in the home, close to the body. Their function is given; their form is familiar. They are self-evident and because of this they carry a possibility that is rarely noticed.

“Within Reach: An Alternative Arsenal” takes as its starting point the female characters of horror cinema and the temporary and domesticated objects that they are often given as weapons. In the women’s hands, the objects take on a double function; they are both for everyday use and potentially dangerous. Their meaning shifts and becomes something else depending on the situation, body and gaze. This shift makes it possible to see how the boundary between care, work and aggression is often more fluid than it first appears.

The work points towards an alternative understanding of the materiality of violence in which a number of everyday objects are reshaped and shifted into something else through material, form and feminine-coded expressions.