Artists: Andrew Amorim, Ane Graff, Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberena, Marjolijn Dijkman, Toril Johannessen, Kamilla Langeland, Jenine Marsh
Exhibition title: The Future Stands Still but We Move in Infinite Space
Venue: OSL Contemporary, Oslo, Norway
Date: January 17 – February 23, 2019
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and OSL Contemporary, Oslo
‘The atoms of our bodies are traceable to stars that manufactured them in their cores and exploded these enriched ingredients across our galaxy, billions of years ago. For this reason, we are biologically connected to every other living thing in the world. We are chemically connected to all molecules on Earth. And we are atomically connected to all atoms in the universe. We are not figuratively, but literally stardust.’
― Neil deGrasse Tyson
This exhibition brings together a group of artists who all challenge our perception and create an awareness of how different elements are entangled in a network of relations. The complexity and relational nature in their works offer a change of perspective of the world and our place in it. Through sculpture, photography, collage, film and drawing; microscopic to intergalactic matter are studied through the camera lens, observed through the microscope, the telescope, or by techniques like inversion, touch and growth, pressings, or free association combining imagery and symbols from dreams and memories. These artists perceive the world as a continuous and difficult dialogue with objects, memories, sensations, possibilities and prohibitions. There is a scale shift that occurs from the imperceivable to the personal, from the intangible to the physical and from the alien to the familiar, which vibrates between these works.
The title of this exhibition is borrowed from one of its artworks and originates from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet (1929).
Captured through a light microscope, the collaborative works by Marjolijn Dijkman & Toril Johannessen show a diverse cast of microorganisms, sampled from brackish water, alongside algae, cultivated in a laboratory. The works are partly based on studies in the laboratory, the artists’ own research and investigations, and historical records, which are brought into the realm of fiction, abstraction and speculation. Kamilla Langeland makes use of snapshots, large format negatives, scientific photographs and vintage negatives to create collages that are often overlaid with photograms, combining found objects with personal belongings to create silver gelatin prints, often hand-colored with pigments. Andrew Amorim is an interdisciplinary artist working with photography, film, video installation, sound, and text to explore themes of memory and decay. He often works by staging actions in front of a camera, subsequently combining found and original material through reproduction and editing. In Ane Graff’s drawings, the surface and structure of organic matter such as bird wings, grass, trees and rocks are closely examined. At the core of her work is the poetics of scientific research and understanding the world through collection, observation and verification. Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberena arrived in Stockholm as a refugee in the late 70’s, and his personal experience is central to his artistic practice, where he maps out narratives and imagery of the extreme and sublime through photography, film, collages and sculpture. Jenine Marsh employs found and close-at-hand materials such as plant matter, urban trash, body-casts and coins in her work. Fragmented, pluralized, distorted and destroyed, her sculptural process is guided by an intersectional feminist directive to re-imagine spaces and bodies outside of predominant patriarchal, capitalistic perspectives.
Kamilla Langeland, Lyra, 2017, Silver gelatin print, 32 x 23 cm
The Future Stands Still but We Move in Infinite Space, 2019, exhibition view, OSL contemporary, Oslo
Jenine Marsh, Shadowing, 2016, Plaster, ink, cellophane, synthetic rubber, polyurethane adhesive, acrylic varnish, wire, 16 x 10 x 24 cm
The Future Stands Still but We Move in Infinite Space, 2019, exhibition view, OSL contemporary, Oslo
Left: Jenine Marsh, interchange, 2019; Right: Marjolijn Dijkman & Toril Johannessen, Aberrations III, 2018
Jenine Marsh, interchange, 2019, Gypsum cement, powdered pigment, coins, wire, plastic, velveteen, flower bulbs, sawdust, staples, polyurethane adhesive, 58 x 19 x 6 cm
The Future Stands Still but We Move in Infinite Space, 2019, exhibition view, OSL contemporary, Oslo
Kamilla Langeland, Blooming, 2019, Silver gelatin baryta print, aquarelle, 18 x 24 cm
Jenine Marsh, turned-out pocket (6), 2019, Gypsum cement, powdered pigment, flower bulb, train-pressed coins, 23 x 15 x 11 cm
Jenine Marsh, turned-out pocket (4), 2019, Gypsum cement, powdered pigment, flower bulb, 24 x 13 x 12 cm
Jenine Marsh, turned-out pocket (1), 2019, Gypsum cement, powdered pigment, flower bulb, 30 x 13 x 6 cm
Back: Ane Graff, Moth on Bark, 2008 and Untitled, 2009; Front: Jenine Marsh, walk the rail, 2019
Ane Graff, Moth on Bark, 2008, Drawing, graphite and ink on paper, 33 x 35 x 2.5 cm
Ane Graff, Untitled, 2009, Drawing, ink and graphite on paper, 30.5 x 25.5 x 2.8 cm
Jenine Marsh, walk the rail, 2019, Welded steel, concrete, gravel, soil, wildflower seeds, flower bulbs, train-pressed coins, rare earth magnet, 300 x 150 x 24 cm
Jenine Marsh, turned-out pocket (3), 2019, Gypsum cement, powdered pigment, flower bulb, train-pressed coins, 10 x 13,5 x 7 cm
Jenine Marsh, turned-out pocket (7), 2019, Gypsum cement, powdered pigment, flower bulb, train-pressed coins, 30 x 22 x 12 cm
Jenine Marsh, turned-out pocket (5), 2019, Gypsum cement, powdered pigment, flower bulb, train-pressed coins, 11 x 12,5 x 9 cm
Left: Kamilla Langeland, Man Looking at Bird, 2017, Glossy silver gelatin Baryta print, 190 x 140 cm; Right: Marjolijn Dijkman & Toril Johannessen, Aberrations III, 2018, C-Print, 170 x 120 cm
Jenine Marsh, coin purse, 2019, Train-pressed coins, wire, velveteen, suede, 45 x 15 x 6 cm
The Future Stands Still but We Move in Infinite Space, 2019, exhibition view, OSL contemporary, Oslo
The Future Stands Still but We Move in Infinite Space, 2019, exhibition view, OSL contemporary, Oslo
Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberena, Black Madonna # II, 2018, Collage, Ink on magazine paper, 118 x 82 cm
Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberena, Black Madonna # III, 2018, Collage, Ink on magazine paper, 118 x 82 cm
Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberena, Black Madonna # II, 2018, Collage, Ink on magazine paper, 118 x 82 cm (close up)
Left: Andrew Amorim, The Future Stands Still, But We Move In Infinite Space, 2017, 2-screen, 4K video, Duration 46:48 (loop); Right: Kamilla Langeland, Man Looking at Bird, 2017, Glossy silver gelatin Baryta print, 190 x 140 cm
Jenine Marsh, walk the rail, 2019, Welded steel, concrete, gravel, soil, wildflower seeds, flower bulbs, train-pressed coins, rare earth magnet, 300 x 150 x 24 cm