Organic relationships
This group exhibition addresses various aspects that can be linked to the concept of organic. Organic is associated with organism, ie the living life that belongs to the animal and plant kingdom. The foreign dictionary emphasizes that the organism constitutes a coherent and living whole consisting of parts that are closely connected to each other. Art history confirms that motifs with an organic touch have been relevant at all times. It is therefore not surprising that today's artists can still be inspired to delve into such a theme. At its core, it can be about challenging oneself to find adequate solutions to the living and enigmatic life.
In Dag Erik Leversby's pictures, we meet an artist who works consistently with a vision related to the bodily organic world, and which he seeks to visualize as clearly as possible. Joining this microscope-like terrain is like taking an excursion into the body's inner and secretive darkness. When there are entrances or exits in the canvas edges, the images are experienced as sections of "landscapes" that are well placed for an exciting organic odyssey.
Frank Brunner, who lives and works in New York, uses his figurative idiom to introduce us to the greenhouse world of growth where life is at the mercy of certain conditions. Can it be perceived as a metaphor for ourselves and our lives? The images seem like sections of naturalistic landscapes, but are characterized by something foreign and unreal that is connected with the exotic design of the plants and the lighting. In his pictorial world, Brunner is often preoccupied with opposites, such as captured vs. free, as here in the "Light House" series.
Esther Maria Bjørneboe operates with an abstract design language. In the painting series "Contra", however, there are clear traces of underlying life forces in that contrasts in shapes and colors build up tension conditions that are centered in the center of the canvas. As in Brunner's pictures, a closeness to nature is experienced, not in the form of landscapes, but as a concentrate of nature's organic power.
Josephine Lindstrøm's photographs typically show Norwegian landscapes. After the eyes have adapted to a mysterious darkness, the motifs emerge in an unfathomable atmosphere. Even with the absence of the life-giving light, trees and other vegetation testify to an inexhaustible force for continuous growth. Nature is transformed into something threatening that soon seems to devour buildings and free space.
Anniken Amundsen has mounted her installation at the foundation wall, which consists of various objects. By not being bound to an image surface, the free-standing sculptures become exponents of a highly ascending force of organic character, and in some cases as human-like beings. They are made of materials that are not usually associated with sculptural tradition, such as the use of rubber and wires in nylon and metal. The installation is beautiful and ethereal, but even these works open up for disturbing associations about a growth that easily gets out of control.
For the exhibition, there is a 40-page catalog with reproductions of some of the works of art. The catalog essay that expands and enriches the experience of the exhibition is written by cand.philol. art history Therese Veier.
Helge Wahl
Drammen Kunstforening