Charlotte Gyllenhammar: Hang
Hang by Charlotte Gyllenhammar in the entrance hall of SSE. Photo: SSE student Pontus Stigberg
Two video works by Charlotte Gyllenhammar, Hang (2011) and Disobedience (1997), alternate in the ceiling of the entrance hall of Stockholm School of Economics. Hang is shown January 1–June 30 and Disobedience July 1–December 31 each year. Together they form a seasonal clock at the heart of the building.
In both works we can see a woman hanging down with her head directed toward the camera lens, while the lower part of the body is hidden from the viewer by flowing skirts.
Charlotte Gyllenhammar's breakthrough came in 1993 with the artwork Die for You, a massive oak tree stripped of its leaves and suspended upside-down on Drottninggatan in central Stockholm. During her career, Gyllenhammar has returned to the motif of things or people hanging and standing upside down. Inversion is one of the most consistent and deeply personal threads running through her work. For Gyllenhammar, inversion — or turning things upside down — isn't just a visual trick; it's a philosophical stance, a way of making the familiar strange and forcing the viewer to confront discomfort, fragility, and hidden meaning. Upturned figures serve as metaphors for vulnerability — being turned upside down strips away dignity and control, placing the subject in a state of helplessness. Inversion is also a way of exploring new perspectives on otherwise taken-for-granted realities, posing the question: what if things were the other way around?
Charlotte Gyllenhammar (b. 1963, Lerum, Sweden) is a Stockholm-based contemporary artist working across sculpture, installation, photography, and film. She was educated at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm and at the Royal College of Art in London.
Hang is a donation to the school by the Firestorm Foundation.
Picture from the inauguration on March 19, 2026. Photo: SSE student Pontus Stigberg
”The striking images of Charlotte Gyllenhammar stand out for the nervous, contorted face buried in a whorl of fabric shaped into a full-blown rose. The artist explained that the image of a woman hanging upside down was shot in large format from underneath.
The inspiration was an uprooted oak tree that Gyllenhammar captured in a Stockholm street in her earlier work Die for You, 1993. “The vision I had as quite brutal – and I didn’t want to cause her more pain,” said the artist referring to the process of exposing the inverted woman’s body and legs. The comment suggests that there is a certain bond between artists and their female subjects”.
- Suzy Menkes, New York Times