Rogaland Art School graduation exhibition
Stavanger Kunstforening
16.5.12-6.6.12
installations, paintings, video, conceptual art by graduating student from two years at Rogaland Art School
It is always a thrill when the Rogaland Art School graduates present their final exhibition. Especially as they this year have been using all of the ground floor of the otherwise empty building of Stavanger Kunstforening. This is a massive exhibition of something for every taste, with paintings, collages, video, installations, conceptual art, sculptures, drawings and more.
Exhibition view
Henriette I E Piekkola: Den trygge havn (The Safe Harbour)
A wonderful installation outside the entrance: A female figure is turned into a coastal landscape, with lighthouse and all. She even provides a map over the island. If it only was that easy, that with a map you would know the dangerous and the safe areas of the females. What would a similar map of a man look like?
Oddny Friestad: Overflater og under
Surfaces on canvas and ceramic sculptures by Friestad. These works would stand out well in a separate exhibition, but in this setting they may too easily be overlooked.
Henrik Koppen: Narsissismen / Medisinstavar
Koppen creates a fantastic world of magic in this installation / video / conceptual piece. The whole room is filled with his universe of mythical religious symbols and offerings. His medicine sticks seem like Indian dreamcatchers, but his portrait on one of them shows that these are the remedies for the religion of praising Henrik Koppen. To be part of this you have to make your offerings, the most precious of your belongings, your mobile and your mp3-player. Videos show these processes and rituals, something that has taken place all round Hafrsfjord bay.
Katarina Foss Nordbotn: REM søvn
A beautiful installation of clothes' shop models and hair, in combination with a massive amount of self portraits, fingers portruding from the wall, and a large canvas painting (below). I see connections to the wax figure Vanessa Beecroft: Blonde Figure Lying showed at Gl. Strand gallery in Copenhagen a year ago.
Katarina Foss Nordbotn: Limbo
An undressed woman lying across the central table of a courtroom. She is obviously a victim, but is she presented as evidence, or is the violence actually taking place in the courtroom? This could point to that few of the cases of violence against women are actually solved. By not taking the crimes seriously, or by not being able to punish the attacker, the victim experiences violence for the second time, by the system that should be there to protect her.
Arnt Helge Vold: Brudeferd
A great way of renewing the centrepiece of Norwegian Folk Romance - the painting by Tiedemand & Gude. The symbol of Norwegian traditions and nature has become a poster, it is flattened. The construction of the Norwegian uniqueness is revealed as just layers of colours. But the frame is still golden.
Kjersti Austdal: Kvinnefigur i plast
A female figure ready to be taken apart and reassembled which way you like. It is soft and flexible, but really of no use. What are important are distinct body features in bright colours. It is made by those floor mats used as toys for kids. Is this the only female task: to look bright, to be soft, to entertain the kids? Please do not answer yes on that.
Ragnhild Rott: Utan tittel
Seen from a specific angle this drawing is perfectly symmetrical.
Audun J. B. Gjendem: The Inrun
In addition to a video of a flying skater and drawings of sportsmen falling hard, Gjendem present this brilliant installation of a skateboard jump going bad.
Espen Egeland: A Therapy Session
Inside a chamber of massive sounds, there is this therapy room consisting of a fern, a chair, and several pictures. The pictures are mirrored, just like the ink blots of the Rorshach tests. But as Freudians would see suggestive sexual contents in any ink blot, here the sexual content is obvious. It would be difficult not to see the sexuality in these pictures (you would probably have to be mad). The therapy room has become a sex-room or in best case a spermdonationroom. I just love how Egeland pokes fun at the speculative psychology methods and takes it far out.
Tone Are Knutsen: Selvportretter
Wonderful collages of magazine clippings and watercolours, there are something distinct human in here, but it is at the same time so abstract. Very fined tuned into organic or smokelike structures. Something corresponding to the works by Are Mokkelbost, shown at Rogaland Kunstsenter two years ago.
Henning Klungtvedt: A Last Breath
Letters made by raw sugar, and an empty ant hive. This exhibition marks the end of the two years of education at Rogaland Art School, and for some of the students the end of their artistic career. But hopefully not for all.
This is an exhibition you should not miss, enjoy the great artwork, and consider which artists you probably will or would like to see more of in the future.
Earlier exhibitions by the same students:
Tou Camp 2012
Commissioned work at Stavanger University
