Artist: Mercedes Mühleisen
Exhibition title: Dead Cat
Venue: Kunsthall Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Date: September 15 – November 5, 2017
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Kunsthall Oslo
Kunsthall Oslo is very pleased to present a new solo exhibition by the Norwegian artist Mercedes Mühleisen. Alien, poetic and surreal, Mühleisen’s work considers the life that goes on in a body after death. Bacteria and microbes in vast numbers inhabit and accompany humans and animals alike. When their host dies, the world of the body is theirs to colonize, to possess and consume.
For the three strange characters who narrate this travelogue, the end is a new beginning; a crisis, but also a liberation. As its protagonists explore the uncharted rivers of the lymphatic system, Dead Cat becomes a hymn to the landscape and possible futures of the cadaver.
Dead Cat is a play for three voices, written by Mercedes Mühleisen and presented as a three-screen video installation. Via 3d scanning and motion capture, Mühleisen’s clay sculptures of imagined microscopic creatures have become animated characters, while the words they speak were collected from books found in an abandoned library in Death Valley, California.
Mühlseisen studied at the Oslo National Academy of Art (2007-2010), and at Nordland Art and Film School. She recently took part in the exhibitions Seeable Sayable at Kunstnernes hus, Oslo; Anachronikus at CAC Vilnius and Roaming at UKS, Oslo (2016). She had a solo exhibition at Akershus kunstsenter in 2016 and exhibited at the Lofoten International Art Festival in 2015. Mühleisen lives and works in Oslo. This exhibition is supported by Arts Council Norway and Billedkunstnernes Hjelpefond.
Thank you to Øyvind Aspen, Stein Düring, Anders Holen, Joachim Ingulstad, Are Mokkelbost, Isis Mühleisen.
