Memory Is Selective

Introduction by Richard Kern 

A collective group of artists and musicians located in Gothenburg, Sweden, called Radium invited me to show films a few times at their warehouse-like space in 1986 or ’87.

I was a drug addict at this time, so going to places like this was always a psychedelic experience. I’d get on a plane, begin kicking dope immediately, then be forced to start looking for something to dull the pain as soon as I landed. In Sweden, the favored drugs seemed to be speed, alcohol, and cigarettes. No one slept. I was amazed that the Swedish government gave organizations like Radium free money to promote the kind of stuff that degenerates like me were doing.

On one of these trips, I met Carl Abrahamsson. He was producing a fanzine called Lollipop and offered to organize a film screening for me in Stockholm.

Memory is selective, unreliable, and questionable. There is no “I’ll remember this forever” tool in our brain. So I was very happy to receive this book of Carl’s photographs from that time period in Sweden. The book puts names to some of the hazy images that drift around in my head. It’s nice to see myself with thick dark hair and black stubble, Genesis as a man, Lydia as a shapely sexpot, Freddie Wadling exactly as I remember him, and multiple photos of one of my favorite bands, Union Carbide Productions.

All I remember about Carl and the trip he organized for me was that I was supposed to sleep on a beat-up leather couch in his one-room apartment while he and his girlfriend “slept” in a bed a few feet away. Drug-sick, I couldn’t pass out, and the grunting and squeaking noises from the bed didn’t help. I know lots of people slept on that couch while visiting Stockholm, and I’ve always wondered if having sex while an extra person or persons were in the room was and still is a vital part of Carl’s sex life.

The following photos are from FanzinEra, Carl’s new book of photos he took in Sweden during the half-remembered years of 1985-88. It will be out in the US in mid-May. More of Carl’s work can be seen at www.carlabrahamsson.com.