Can an object be both a sculpture and a lamp? Why do we still tend to place usable art objects lower on the ladder than completely functionless art? What exactly is it about the utility function that drags it down? In contemporary art, we see that these dividing lines between art, craft and design are in the process of dissolving. EXCITING: From a purely thematic point of view, this office interior is very interesting. It thematizes the fear of ornament, and of any design of furniture that is not based on geometry or where the form springs from pure function. But in terms of form, I have problems with this table. The surrealist-inspired cartwheel-like circles that form the table legs are fluid in form and unappealing in my opinion. On the other hand, I have a great sense of the small stool (or the small table). Here form and material speak together in an incredibly beautiful way. I like the small room a little further down, where you can place something, as long as this is a table, and not a piece of furniture. Even if we quickly interpret this more as a piece of furniture than as a sculpture, there is much about the form that is not necessitated by the function, which means that this work also moves in the borderlands between the sculptural and the functional. Photo: Istvan Virag / KUNSTDOK And the question is whether we still need such categories, and whether the function’s stigma is gradually disappearing. These issues are central to the exhibition “In a room, in a riddle” which will be on display until Christmas at the Nitja center for contemporary art in Lillestrøm. The exhibition offers nine art projects that in different ways explore the border crossing between the sculptural and the functional. IN A DREAM: Tron Meyer’s sculptures are dreamlike and surreal. The dreamlike aspect is emphasized by the fact that he has made the bed a starting point. I see that he plays something geometric against something organic, but personally I don’t get much out of these sculptures. Photo: Istvan Virag / KUNSTDOK Getting a bit much As an overall experience, the exhibition is thought tiring. Here, loud form universes collide and create a cacophony of shapes, colors, styles and materials. I must also admit that I am not equally excited about all the individual works in the exhibition. But having said that, I am actually quite impressed that the curator has expertly managed what many fail to do in thematic exhibitions: conveying the announced theme through the selected works. Here, neither text posters nor verbal explanations are needed to spot the exciting interplay between expression and function, sculpture and furniture. IN EXCESS: Ida Madsen Følling’s watercolor paintings have a lot of sensuality, but here I feel that there is far too much of everything and there is a rather wild competition between the elements. When Markus Li Stensrud’s sculptural objects are added, the whole thing becomes exhaustingly chaotic. But I like the idea of the simple gray concrete blocks that hold the drawing in place, and the hands that sort of feel the paper. Photo: Istvan Virag / KUNSTDOK Sculpture or furniture? Kine Ulvestad, for example, has placed plants in her ceramic objects to emphasize the possibility that they can be interpreted as jars or vases. Henrik Ødegaard is represented with beautiful, organic wooden sculptures, where the forms carry dimmed light bulbs. LIGHT: Works by Henrik Ødegaard. I am least excited about the tallest sculpture. It could probably have been successfully split in two, so that the game of form came into its own even more clearly. But the slightly lower sculptures are really great. One has soft shapes and gives associations to a Madonna with child, another is characterized by something hard, angular and perhaps a little “masculine”. The fact that the sculptures provide human and bodily associations makes it easier for us to connect with them. It is exciting how the objects contain a tension between the sculptural and the functional. Photo: Istvan Virag / KUNSTDOK These function both as decorative elements in the whole, but also open up the possibility that we can look at the objects as lamps. I stand for a long time and look at these shapes. Here there is a beautiful and dynamic play of rhythm between different volumes, and a harmony between form and material. FORM VS COLOR: In most of these combination forms by Kine Ulvestad, she succeeds in letting the colors submit to the form. With the exception of the large sculpture on the left. Here the shape is torn to pieces and the colors make the outline of the shape disappear. The blue on the right, on the other hand, is very beautiful with its coordinated color tones, and its play between wide and narrow elements. The slightly tower-like brown sculpture has something almost underwater about it. And it makes us ponder whether it is perhaps a candlestick or just a shape in the room. Photo: Istvan Virag / KUNSTDOK A waterfall of threads Ellen Grieg’s colorful textile sculptures are created from large synthetic ropes. Here she breaks with the notion of textile art as something decorative and small. The industrially produced ropes form shiny coils above the ceiling. Further down, she has untied the tightly knotted ropes, so that they form a waterfall of loose threads down to the floor. COLOR PLAY: Here, there really is an attitude and an expressive power. The bright, almost white fields in the rope play off the brightly colored ones. This measurement of color makes it exciting. In the studio, Ellen Grieg has created an advanced pulley system, where she can hoist the powerful ropes up and down in the dye bath, and create this beautiful play of color. These are colored in different denominations. One is shiny yellow with hints of white and orange. Another is blue with shades of turquoise, and a third is both red and pink, mixed with golden orange hues. In the loose cascades of threads, she has created new knots by hand as in a large unruly hair. In an effective way, she here plays the natural and the synthetic against each other. The rope, which was originally produced as a utility object, has been transformed into a pure expression of form. A LOT GOING ON: I’m a bit ambivalent about this sculpture. If I were to give advice to the artist, I would probably ask him to reduce the number of elements. But still, I’m a little impressed by how he manages to sort out the chaos. He creates a certain sense of rhythm and wholeness by combining different directions on the elements, playing the big against the small. Photo: Istvan Virag / KUNSTDOK The enigma of the room Based on Paul’s old, biblical letter to the Corinthians, the exhibition title gives us a sense of the fabulous and the enigmatic. But it is not in the mirror that we see the enigmatic this time, it is in the room. This is where the practical everyday meets the artistically irrational. In this sense, the title with the “misquotation” of Paulus is well chosen. “In a room, in a riddle” is a mixture of strong and weak works that manage to discuss this theme in an exciting way. news reviews Title: “In a room, in a riddle” Type: Group exhibition Curator: Monica Holmen Place: Nitja center for contemporary art, Lillestrøm Time frame: 18 November – 22 December 2023 Estimated time: 30 – 60 minutes Artists: Raymond Fuyana Ellen Grieg Damien Ajavon Ida Madsen Følling Kine Ulvestad Markus Li Stensrud Tron Meyer Kent Fonn Skåre Henrik Ødegaard Richard Øiestad Kevin Kurang
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“In a room, in a puzzle – cross-genre art” at Nitja center for contemporary art – Reviews and recommendations
