Chadwick Rantanen at STANDARD (OSLO)

Artist: Chadwick Rantanen

Exhibition title: Worm

Venue: STANDARD (OSLO), Oslo, Norway

Date: December 4, 2020 – February 6, 2021

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and STANDARD (OSLO)

STANDARD (OSLO) is proud to present a solo exhibition of new works by Chadwick Rantanen.

A.
The style of pole (simple) that common criminals were fastened to, typically including a block for the feet, thus using only one nail through the hands (below the palm), reducing the cost of materials involved, and hastening death by asphyxia most often following the breaking of the legs.

B.
Vacant raw materials, salvaged and turned into devotional objects. Ofcuts from material suppliers and lumber yards, tags and codes for organizing materials into manageable, distributable forms. Symmetry is surmised, contrived and imposed upon them, not grown from the inside out like a living thing. These remnants have no saga to tell, they only bear the markings of a path through commerce. They represent minor excess, that which is slightly out of sync between customer and supplier: the diference between piece goods and people.

C.
No matter the shape, a body can always be nailed in place if the wood is strong enough.

D.
To make something to look down on you, hang it above your head.

E.
Three pieces of material
Stacked and staked
Hung at an angle from above
One wire, one nail
Gravity

This is Chadwick Rantanen’s fourth solo exhibition at STANDARD (OSLO), and coincides with a solo exhibition by Torbjørn Rødland. Both artists being located in Los Angeles, being friends and eager supporters of each other, the two solo exhibitions merge in the galleries central and third exhibition space – making a joint presentation of Rantanen’s sculptures and Rødland’s photographs. Other recent solo exhibitions include Secession, Vienna; Atlantis Lumiere, Marseille; Overduin & Co., Los Angeles; Essex Street, New York; Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago; as well as two-artist exhibitions with Benjamin Hirte at Museo Pietro Canonica, Rome, and with Calvin Marcus at C L E A R I N G, Brussels.