DKF - “HOMO SUM”

"HOMO SUM" - Drammen Art Association's exhibition
September 27 - November 4, 2007

At all times, man and his life and relics have been brought to life in both visual art and literature. Already about 150 BC. the Roman writer Terentius wrote a comedy in which the statement "Homo sum" appears. In its entirety, it reads: "I am a human being, nothing human is foreign to me" The quote relates to what it means to be a thinking human being, and how a complex register of emotions affects behavior and action.
Man as a theme is both challenging and eternally relevant as human relationships concern us all. Four artists seek to shed light on this theme. Through their artistic expression, everyone can connect threads to their own lives and at best open up new perspectives and contexts.

In Kenneth Blom's work, we meet people who live in a sterile room. The room appears as a composition of surfaces without disturbing details, a solution that evokes a cool and alienating atmosphere. Associations about a scenographic background are obvious, and it is against this that interpersonal situations unfold. The characters perform no actions and have no communication with each other. They are experienced as lonely and introverted without contact with the realities of life. The use of complementary colors set against each other also highlights a tense polarity.

Johanne Marie Hansen-Krone's art addresses aspects of being human. She highlights image elements that touch on psychological and human conditions. The works spring from a concrete reality, and in the language of form the contrast between the abstract and the true to nature is utilized in a partly expressive way, a grip that opens up ambiguous interpretations.
When the image space can be filled with bodies that to a greater or lesser extent relate to each other in intricate and intersecting diagonal solutions, restlessness and unrest are signaled and give a hint that life does not always follow a finished line. The bodies are contoured and have the shape of cut-out figures without special characteristics. They appear as universally valid exponents of man.

Hans Georg Kohler's work is characterized by monumental bodies filling a picture space that is outside reality. In its nudity, the figures' almost stylized and sculptural design gives a medieval feel with a religious overtones. They seem to have cut out in accordance with the words of the book of Job: "I came naked from my mother's womb, and I returned naked."
When Kohler is not primarily concerned with visualizing external processes of action, the focus is instead on the internal state of man. Kohler Hjalmar Söderberg's postulate may touch on: "It should happen that life's only question is to live - and then die". However, a pessimistic estimate does not overshadow the artist's homage to life. Kohler, on the other hand, does not seem to have any belief that a materialist-based view of values can serve as a foundation for achieving an authentic identity. The outer things one surrounds oneself with can, on the contrary, camouflage an inner emptiness.

Elisabeth Maria Toften opens for meetings with people who are in scenographically arranged nature rooms and interiors. Their shapes and colors make them easily appear as parts of a lush organic growth, and a dialogue arises between man and nature. Humans seem introverted and serious, they are aware of creation and seem to be anxious about the environmental threat we face. We also sense a search for definitive answers about our own lives. The characters have an appearance that reflects a feeling of despair towards the international community, which with its knowledge and resources still does not intervene enough against the growing danger of destruction of life on earth.

Helge Wahl