Artist: Kenneth Alme
Exhibition title: Einsame Insel
Venue: Gether Contemporary, Copenhagen, Denmark
Date: May 19 – June 28, 2017
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Gether Contemporary
In his second solo exhibition at the gallery ‘Einsame Insel’ Kenneth Alme delves in deeper to investigate the mind, gestures and properties of an artist. Through painting, sculpture and video Alme takes his outset in the philosophic phrase first put forth by philosopher George Berkeley ‘If a tree were to fall on an uninhabited island, would there be any sound’. In the same way Kenneth Alme asks the question ‘if nobody are around to experience an artwork, does it exist’.
Central to the exhibition is a soundless, rough and distorted video of a tree falling. The video runs on constant repeat, so we experience the last 8 seconds of the life of the tree again and again. Running on repeat the spectator is kept in a limbo in the experience, hammering home the philosophical paradox of existence.
Element by element the show and the artworks themselves are put together each becoming a sum of their parts. On the canvasses Alme again and again places a variation of the same elements. A rectangular shape is displaced in different positions. A tree in a variation of expressions and guises is repeatedly obscured both by the painterly process on the canvas and the various elements which fluctuate on the image plane.
The sculptures carry on this juxtaposition. Different objects in-spite of their original utility are put together and make up a body of shapes. A straw basket, a neon light, wirering and plaster; together forming a compositional relationship.
‘Einsame Insel’ becomes a play on words referencing both Berkeley’s paradox and Alme’s proclamation of the importance of the arts. But also nods at the classic idea of the artist as a solitary figure fighting against himself and society to be heard and recognised.
Kenneth Alme was born in 1981 in Tønsberg, Norway. He lives and works in Oslo, where he graduated from the National Art Academy in 2010. His work has been shown in exhibitions at, among others, Gether Contemporary in Copenhagen (DK); Noplace in Oslo (NO); SPREEZ in München (DE); Rod Barton in Brussels (B); Kazachenkos Apartment in Oslo (NO) and Labor/Opelvillenin Rüsselsheim (DE).
Kenneth Alme, Totem (Light and Basket), 2017, Plaster, Tarp, woven basket, fluorescent light, wire, 70x40x30 cm
Kenneth Alme, Totem (Light and Basket), 2017, Plaster, Tarp, woven basket, fluorescent light, wire, 70x40x30 cm
Kenneth Alme, Untitled, 2017, Oil, acrylic and primer on linen canvas, wooden stretcher, 160×120 cm
Kenneth Alme, Untitled, 2017, Oil, acrylic and primer on cotton canvas, wooden stretcher, 160×120 cm
Kenneth Alme, Untitled, 2017, Oil, acrylic, gesso and print on linen canvas, wooden stretcher, 160×120 cm
Kenneth Alme, Untitled, 2017, Oil, acrylic and gesso on stitched cotton canvas, wooden stretcher, 150×110 cm
Kenneth Alme, Untitled, 2017, Oil, acrylic, gesso and print on cotton canvas, wooden stretcher, 150×110 cm
Kenneth Alme, Untitled (Cave), 2017, Oil, acrylic and print on cotton canvas, wooden stretcher, 40×30 cm
