Maja Daniels: Gertrud

In 1667 a 12-year-old girl, Gertrud Svensdotter, was accused of walking on water in Älvdalen, Sweden. This event marked the beginning of the Swedish witch-hunts, a period of mass hysteria and horror in Älvdalen and its neighbouring regions. The book ‘Gertrud’ by artist Maja Daniels uses photography to reconfigure the history and myth of these events, igniting a contemporary dialogue around Gertrud.

Maja Daniels—who has family ties to the town of Älvdalen—grew up hearing her grandmother speak of the stories surrounding Gertrud Svensdotter. The resulting witch trials, now known as ‘Det stora oväsendet’ (the big clamour), claimed the lives of over 300 people across 8-years. Centuries later, these events, almost incomprehensible to modern sensibilities, are still viewed as one of the most macabre and dark periods in Sweden’s history.

Most of the photographs in ‘Gertrud’ were created by Daniels through interventions in the forest. Utilising the landscape, a cast of characters and seemingly talismanic objects, she has drawn upon a surrealist desire to ‘re-enchant the world’. In reaction to the present-day view diminishing the value of forests to mere ‘resources’, her work re-envisions them as once more places of stories, myth and magic. Interspersed with Daniel’s photographs are those from the archive of Tenn Lars Persson (1878-1938) whose work she engaged with in her previous book ‘Elf Dalia’ (MACK). As the book ‘Gertrud’ unfolds the intertwined sets of photographs disorientate the viewer, unsettling ideas around place and linear time.