Artist: Olav Bøkestad (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad)
Exhibition title: Drawings 1989 – 1994
Venue: SCHLOSS, Oslo, Norway
Date: August 18 – September 23, 2017
Photography: Courtesy of the artist and SCHLOSS, Oslo. Photos: Vegard Kleven
SCHLOSS is proud to present an exhibition with works by Olav Bøkestad (b. 1970, Norway). Entitled Drawings 1989 – 1994, the exhibition is comprised of 22 drawings. Originally published as editorial cartoons in local and national newspapers in Norway two and a half decades ago, the drawings will for the first time be exhibited together, as a body of work.
In his show, Bøkestad focuses on a selection of drawings with motifs such as friendship, heartless surgeons, consumption, the 1994 European Union referendum, students, positivity, goblins, and misandry. Situated within the paper-space of journalism and other texts in the service of public awareness, a cartoon drawing is given the opportunity to reveal the absurdity of popular mindsets and the insularity of certain political modes. The author, in this case Bøkestad, employs personal style and caricature in order to play a critic with no particular loyalties, but emotional consistencies nonetheless. Exhumed from their original time frames and publications, how does the satire of the drawings operate outside of decades-old cultural landscapes? Can one political moment be recycled into another, and what happens to a joke when it is no longer funny?
A few of the drawings provide a text supporting the image, while many are without a verbal punchline, moving from fictive dialogues to esoteric vantage points. Some of the drawings remain unpublished, their points deemed too convoluted or oblique by the copy desks. It remains more unsure than ever what sort of commentary they’re inviting.
“My drawings during the 1994 referendum campaign kept Norway out of the European Union” says Olav Bøkestad in a statement. “After that I just stopped.”
Bøkestad grew up, and abandoned his work as a cartoonist to pursue a career in photography. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
Olav Bøkestad (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Drawings 1989 – 1994, 2017, exhibition view, SCHLOSS, Oslo
Olav Bøkestad (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Drawings 1989 – 1994, 2017, exhibition view, SCHLOSS, Oslo
Olav Bøkestad (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Drawings 1989 – 1994, 2017, exhibition view, SCHLOSS, Oslo
Olav Bøkestad (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Drawings 1989 – 1994, 2017, exhibition view, SCHLOSS, Oslo
Olav Bøkestad (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Drawings 1989 – 1994, 2017, exhibition view, SCHLOSS, Oslo
Olav Bøkestad (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Drawings 1989 – 1994, 2017, exhibition view, SCHLOSS, Oslo
Olav Bøkestad (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Drawings 1989 – 1994, 2017, exhibition view, SCHLOSS, Oslo
Olav Bøkestad (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Drawings 1989 – 1994, 2017, exhibition view, SCHLOSS, Oslo
Olav Bøkestad (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Drawings 1989 – 1994, 2017, exhibition view, SCHLOSS, Oslo
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), The Writer, Undated, Ink, sharpie and whiteout on paper, 37 x 23 x 0.1 cm / 14 1/2 x 9 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Heartless Surgeons, Undated, Photocopy, ink, sharpie and whiteout on paper, 25 x 35.5 x 0.1 cm / 9 3/4 x 14 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Consumption, 1990, Collage, ink and whiteout on paper, 34 x 45 x 0.1 cm / 13 1/2 x 17 3/4 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Dead Student, Undated, Photocopy, ink and whiteout on paper, 21 x 29 x 0.5 cm / 8 1/4 x 11 1/2 x 1/4 in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Playpen, Undated, Ink and whiteout on paper, 20.5 X 31 cm / 8 x 12 1/4 in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Politician and the EU, 1994, Ink, sharpie and whiteout on paper, 23 x 27 x 0.1 cm / 9 x 10 2/3 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Positivity, Undated, Photocopy, ink and whiteout on paper, 21 x 30 x 0.1 cm / 8 1/4 x 11 3/4 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Father and Daughter, 1994, Collage, photocopy and ink on paper, 20.5 x 29.5 x 0.1 cm / 8 x 11 2/3 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Glasnost, 1990, Ink on paper, 32 x 45.5 x 0.1 cm / 12 2/3 x 18 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Party Dialogue, 1992, Ink and sharpie on paper, 35 x 23 x 0.1 cm / 13 3/4 x 9 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Untitled Study, Undated, Ink and sharpie on paper, 28 x 24 x 0.1 cm / 11 x 9 1/2 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Defending Norway, 1992, Ink, sharpie and whiteout on paper, 38 x 33.5 x 0.1 cm / 15 x 13 1/4 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Two Students, Undated, Ink and whiteout on paper, 19 x 30.5 x 0.1 cm / 7 1/2 x 12 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), From Yes to No, 1994, Ink and sharpie on photocopy, 10 x 21 x 0.1 cm / 4 x 8 1/4 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Scumlord, Undated, Ink and whiteout on paper, 24.5 x 33 x 0.1 cm / 9 2/3 x 13 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Logo Modification, 1994, Ink, sharpie and whiteout on paper, 20 x 30 x 0.1 cm / 7 3/4 x 11 3/4 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Misandry, 1994, Ink, sharpie and whiteout on paper, 50 x 35 x 0.1 cm / 19 2/3 x 13 3/4 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Misandry, 1994, Ink and whiteout on paper, 24 x 12.5 x 0.1 cm / 9 1/2 x 5 x in
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Woodstock’ 94, Undated, Ink, sharpie and whiteout on paper, 23.5 x 28.5 cm / 35 x 31 x 2.5 cm (framed) / 9 1/4 x 11 1/4 in / 13 3/4 x 12 1/4 x 1 in (framed)
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Friendship, 1990, Ink, sharpie and whiteout on paper, 50 x 34 cm / 56.5 x 40.5 x 2.5 cm (framed) / 19 2/3 x 13 1/2 in / 22 1/4 x 16 x 1 in (framed)
Torbjørn Rødland (Torbjørn Rødland AKA Olav Bøkestad), Morose, 1985, Color pencil on paper, 36.5 x 27 cm / 45 x 34 x 2.5 cm (framed) / 14 1/3 x 10 2/3 in / 17 3/4 x 13 1/2 x 1 in (framed)