Jenna Sutela at Kunsthall Trondheim

Artist: Jenna Sutela

Exhibition title: NO NO NSE NSE

Venue: Kunsthall Trondheim, Trondheim, Norway

Date: March 4 – August 29, 2020

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Kunsthall Trondheim

Note: Exhibition booklet is available here

Jenna Sutela’s exhibition NO NO NSE NSE at Kunsthall Trondheim, which will travel in a modified version to Oslo Kunstforening, is the artist’s first major solo show at an international institution. Through Sutela’s latest series of works, including newly commissioned photograms developed specifically for this occasion, the exhibition explores artificial intelligence and in particular the relation between randomness and control in organic and inorganic systems.

Science fiction is a recurring theme in Sutela’s work. So is the quest to go beyond the limits of human-created language, both by delving into artificial intelligence and machine learning, and by turning towards technologies as shamanistic devices or possible mediums to channel alien semantics.

Sutela’s work urges us to consider other, nonhuman, species as intelligent beings, such as the Physarum polycephalum slime mould. An organism without a brain or a heart, it is nonetheless able to learn and is used, among others, to study complex human infrastructures such as the Tokyo railway network. Sutela proposes her collaboration with slime moulds as a model against anthropocentric hierarchies, to point instead to decentralised intelligence and a deep connectivity of consciousness and the material world—both living and non-living.

Her latest projects look in particular into non-deterministic models of computers and algorithms. Sutela experiments both with inserting fermenting foods into the “guts” of a computer to generate unforeseeable reactions, and with the random bubbles of lava lamps, which have lately been used to encrypt data.

For her exhibition at Kunsthall Trondheim, Sutela produced new photograms of lava lamps she created in the shape of her own head, pointing to psychedelic technologies and neuroplasticity. In Sutela’s work, technologies transcend physical and immaterial boundaries. The exhibition NO NO NSE NSE invites viewers to approach machines not as models or expansions of the human mind, but on their very own terms.

Jenna Sutela: I Magma (2019), detail. Blown glass, goo, electronics. Dimensions variable. Co-commissioned by Serpentine Galleries and Moderna Museet, 2019. Photo: Aage A. Mikalsen / Kunsthall Trondheim

Installation view of Jenna Sutela’s exhibition NO NO NSE NSE (4 March–3 May, 2020) at Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway. Photo: Aage A. Mikalsen / Kunsthall Trondheim

Jenna Sutela: I Magma (2019), detail. Blown glass, goo, electronics. Dimensions variable. Co-commissioned by Serpentine Galleries and Moderna Museet, 2019. Photo: Aage A. Mikalsen / Kunsthall Trondheim

Jenna Sutela: Early reign, the lunar goddess (2020). Unique C- print photograms on Fuji Crystal Archive, 170 cm x 120 cm. The photographic process was developed by Brittany Nelson with the assistance of Anna Katharina Scheidegger in the laboratories of Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France. Commissioned by Kunsthall Trondheim, 2020. Photo: Aage A. Mikalsen / Kunsthall Trondheim

Installation view of Jenna Sutela’s exhibition NO NO NSE NSE (4 March–3 May, 2020) at Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway. Photo: Aage A. Mikalsen / Kunsthall Trondheim

Jenna Sutela: No central creatures are fixed (2020). Unique C-print photograms on Fuji Crystal Archive, 170 cm x 120 cm. The photographic process was developed by Brittany Nelson with the assistance of Anna Katharina Scheidegger in the laboratories of Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France. Commissioned by Kunsthall Trondheim, 2020. Photo: Aage A. Mikalsen / Kunsthall Trondheim

Installation view of Jenna Sutela’s exhibition NO NO NSE NSE (4 March–3 May, 2020) at Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway. Photo: Aage A. Mikalsen / Kunsthall Trondheim

Jenna Sutela: Minakata Mandala (2017) and From Hierarchy to Holarchy (2015). Physarum polycephalum, agar, oats, CNC engraving on Plexiglas, 50 cm x 50 cm x 1.5 cm. Photo: Aage A. Mikalsen / Kunsthall Trondheim

Jenna Sutela: nimiia cétiï (2018), video still. Video, sound, 12’06’’. The work was created in collaboration with Memo Akten and Damien Henry as part of  n-dimensions, Google Arts & Culture’s artist-in-residence program at Somerset House Studios. Thanks to Kieran Bates from the Institute of Zoology at Imperial College London, Adam Laschinger for sound recordings, and Manus Nijhoff and Leith Benkhedda for 3D work. The video includes music with Miako Kleinin  contrabass recorder and Shin-Joo Morgantini on flute, with sound production by Ville Haimala

Jenna Sutela: From Hierarchy to Holarchy (2015), details. Physarum polycephalum, agar, oats, CNC engraving on Plexiglas, 50 cm x 50 cm x 1.5 cm. Photo: Mikko Gaestel

Jenna Sutela: I Magma App (2019). Mobile app. Jenna Sutela with Memo Akten, language generation by Allison Parrish. UI and app development by Black Shuck. iOS: requires iPhone 6s and above / iOS 11 and later. Android: requires Android 8.0 or later. Co-commissioned by Serpentine Galleries and Moderna Museet, 2019. Downloadable for free at www.kunsthalltrondheim.no and in app stores. Image courtesy Serpentine Galleries, London. Photo: Ralph Pritchard

Jenna Sutela: nimiia cétiï (2018) . Video, sound, 12’06’’. The work was created in collaboration with Memo Akten and Damien Henry as part of  n-dimensions, Google Arts & Culture’s artist-in -residence program at Somerset House Studios. Thanks to Kieran Bates from the Institute of Zoology at Imperial College London, Adam Laschinger for sound recordings, and Manus Nijhoff and Leith Benkhedda for 3D work. The video includes music with Miako Kleinin  contrabass recorder and Shin- Joo Morgantini on flute, with sound production by Ville Haimala Photo: Aage A. Mikalsen / Kunsthall Trondheim & Daniel Vincent Hansen

Jenna Sutela: Nam-Gut (the microbial breakdown of language)(2017). Video, sound, 19’02’’. The work is based on Gut-Machine Poetry (2017), an online commission by Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art realized in collaboration with Vincent de Belleval and Johanna Lundberg. Voice by Jessica Edwards. Photo: Aage A. Mikalsen / Kunsthall Trondheim & Daniel Vincent Hansen

Jenna Sutela: RI JIRI I O WA NU RU DAINICHI T-1000(2016). Video, sound, 2’14’’. Camera and editing by Mikko Gaestel. Photo: Aage A. Mikalsen / Kunsthall Trondheim & Daniel Vincent Hansen

Jenna Sutela & Nhu Duong: nimiia tritiviviba(2020). Limited edition Bacterial-Martian bikini. Top and bottom are digitally printed stretch jersey triangle bikini. Top with shoulder strap with self-tie fastening. Bottom with strap with self-tie fastening. Can be bought separately or as a two piece bikini set. Fabric: 80% Polyamide, 20% Elastane, fully lined. Size range: S, M, L. Made in Bulgaria. Made as an edition for Kunsthall Trondheim in connection to Jenna Sutela’s show NO NO NSE NSE (4 March–3 May, 2020)

Jenna Sutela: Early reign, the lunar goddess(2020). Unique C-print photograms on Fuji Crystal Archive, 170 cm x 120 cm. The photographic process was developed by Brittany Nelson with the assistance of Anna Katharina Scheidegger in the laboratories of Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France. Commissioned by Kunsthall Trondheim, 2020. Photo: Daniel Vincent Hansen. Image courtesy Kunsthall Trondheim

Jenna Sutela: The figure of the deep(2020). Unique C-print photograms on Fuji Crystal Archive, 170 cm x 120 cm. The photographic process was developed by Brittany Nelson with the assistance of Anna Katharina Scheidegger in the laboratories of Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France. Commissioned by Kunsthall Trondheim, 2020. Photo: Daniel Vincent Hansen. Image courtesy Kunsthall Trondheim

Jenna Sutela: No central creatures are fixed(2020). Unique C-print photograms on Fuji Crystal Archive, 170 cm x 120 cm. The photographic process was developed by Brittany Nelson with the assistance of Anna Katharina Scheidegger in the laboratories of Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France. Commissioned by Kunsthall Trondheim, 2020. Photo: Daniel Vincent Hansen. Image courtesy Kunsthall Trondheim