Perhaps because A visit during my absence both begins and ends with black emptiness, explains why the experience of absence is crucial to understanding Rivruds work. How absence is experienced, however, is left to the viewer that is situated in-between Rivruds melodic sequence of moving and non-moving images to work out. Rivruds open invitation to multiple readings of the work, demands at the same time a quiet and patient absorption into a delicate composition that combines soundless images with music. Folding two separate sets of images into the next, relating a private and public witness of two different generations of women dancing, music becomes the only constant and unobstructed path through the artist´s work. Against this acoustic framework, like musical notes written on bar, meaning in Rivruds work belongs entirely to her selection of images. Presenting visual fragments and wholes, Rivruds use of images calls upon an appreciation of time, self and otherness, when understanding absence. For instance, how does the self distinguish between loneliness and being alone; and how are these experiences dependent upon our relations with others in time? A visit during my absence is a paradoxical work, loaded with melancholy and playfulness. At its heart, it shows us that the difference between dancing in the presence of someone and dancing in the presence of no one can indeed be very little.

Text by Joel Mu, independent curator and art-writer