Gunilla Klingberg Contemporary consumer culture and urban iconography is the subject matter of Gunilla Klingberg's ongoing project All Lost in the Supermarket. For the past couple of years she has been manipulating logotypes. Not those of global corporations, or the expensive and exclusive ones, but rather those representing one of the less glamorous, mundane activities of everyday life - grocery shopping.

Klingberg has painted the distorted logotypes of low-price supermarket chains directly on the gallery wall, and they have appeared as enormous mandala-like patterns on a series of billboards. Continuing this theme, she has now produced a series of video animations, four to date, entitled Spar Loop, a collection of logotypes of ubiquitous supermarkets such as the Swedish Sparlivs and the Dutch Spar. Depending on the exhibition location, she incorporates a local variant, thus providing a commercial portrait of the cityscape.

The videos contain four or five logotypes, each of which whirls, twirls and mutates, continually changing, giving rise to a kaleidoscopic array of decorative patterns for two-three minutes before being replaced by the next logotype that is given the same treatment. A myriad of complex psychedelic patterns and shapes appear, sometimes they resemble brightly coloured flowers, or snowflakes, other times they are abstract, symmetrical and geometrical. As one hypnotic, seductive pattern after another unfolds and is replaced by yet another in an unending flow, the gaze is irresistibly drawn deeper and deeper into the centre.

The mesmerising effects of Spar Loop reflect well Klingberg's choice of the mandala form for her animations. A mandala is a symbolic, holy, circular figure representing the universe in various religions, and is used for contemplation and as a meditation aid. In Klingberg's schematised representation of the cosmos the images of the deities and their attributes have been replaced by commercial logotypes, creating a diametrical opposition between form and content. Is meditating on these images going to lead to enlightenment, inner harmony and self-awareness? Perhaps not. Instead of worshipping at the shrine, we are paying homage to consumerism. We may no longer be in the iron-grip of religion but we are increasingly controlled and manipulated by the market. In all media and wherever we go, we are bombarded by advertising images imploring us to consume.

In psychological terms, a mandala is a symbol in a dream representing the dreamer's search for completeness and self-unity. For many of us, who seek comfort and reassurance, shopping may be the answer. In the department stores, we are aided by personal shoppers, the spiritual guides or gurus of our time, who skilfully lead us directly, and miraculously, to the right item that will provide us with a sense of wholeness. However, Klingberg's logotypes are not those that we normally associate with shopping for pleasure, but with shopping for our most basic needs which, perhaps, reminds us that we have to look for enlightenment somewhere else than in the market place, otherwise all will be lost in the supermarket.

Karen Diamond. Originally published in nu: Nordic art review issue 6/00