IT’S CLOUD ILLUSIONS I RECALL

It’s Cloud Illusions I Recall presents four individual artists, whose works take on a personal and self-reflexive approach, transmitted to the viewer via a sensual experience. The exhibition aims at examining how we relate to our surroundings and how our subjective experience of geography determines our actions. Interiors, landscapes and street scenes that at one moment stand out as random snapshots become in the next loaded with references, stories and recognizable details to turn an image into something of greater significance. The exhibition thus presents works that revolve around ideas related to the relationship between a place and a form of immaterial existence.

Richard Alexandersson’s 3D-animations are built virtual landscapes that seem to exist in an undefined stage of collapse, somewhere between destruction and creation. Alexandersson’s work can have a disturbing effect in evading traditional interpretations, while moving into a surrealistic universe. Mixing nostalgia with futurism, and hovering between dystopian and utopian worlds, the works confront the viewer with constant ambiguity and thus confirm the possibility of co-existing constructed realities that ultimately pursue our constant dream for self-realization.

Marius Moldvær’s The Construction of Christopher McCandless takes as its starting point the story of Christopher McCandless, who died on August 18, 1992 after surviving 113 days in the Alaskan wilderness. McCandless´ story was made infamous through Jon Krakauer’s 1996 novel Into the wild and the feature film by Sean Penn in 2007 where Moldvær’s work is an examination of the visual aftermath left behind by McCandless’s journey utilizing the notion of wilderness, escapism, belonging, and home. The project includes restaged stills from Penn´s film, the imaginary travels of the people who inspired by McCandless died in Riddle and outside Steens Mountain in Oregon, and Moldvær’s own experience as he retraces these three narratives. Through this, the project makes manifest a visual world, a construction, that attempts to disclose the story of McCandless as a part of a complex system of thought, both visually and intellectually, and a contemporary society that could allow, and needed to, continue the construction of Christopher McCandless.

In Eline Mugaas’ photographs everyday objects and interiors are invoked as simple yet convincing illusions. Mugaas shows how perception is a complex composition of phenomena and various forms of representation. The images alternate continuously between being exactly what they are and what they represent. As observers we are confronted with different perceptions of reality and, similar to the realism of a psychosis, we accept that the lamp that lights up a potted plant is transformed into a moonlit landscape. Mugaas uses the camera to explore the relationship between formal compositions and chance. Evoking a strong sensual feeling, the works demonstrate that different subjective spaces occur both inside and outside the picture frame, yet at the same time take up discussions that point to the photographic medium itself.

Anne Lise Stenseth’s film Suspended Dust is based on the history and myths surrounding the Norwegian author Dagny Juel Przybyzewska who was shot and killed at the Grand Hotel Tbilisi in 1901. The recordings for the film were made in Tbilisi, Georgia (where Juel is buried) and at her childhood home, today the Women’s Museum in Kongsvinger. Juel is still relevant today, in spite of her short life and authorship. Above all, the interest in Juel is based on her personality and the men she was surrounded by, including Edvard Munch and August Strindberg. Living in a period when concepts of freedom were tested through the emergence of neo-romanticism, Juel herself focused on the existential and spiritual in life, with a strong urge for freedom and self-realization. The story of the film commences at the moment Juel’s grave is transferred to a new place on the Kukia graveyard in Tbilisi, making it possible for her spirit to wander. The viewer traces Juel’s movements and listens to her reflections including that on her past life and her unfulfilled desire to return to her childhood home in Norway.

Richard Alexandersson (born 1982 in Göteborg) graduated with an MFA and BFA from The Oslo National Academy of the Arts in 2011 and 2009 respectively. Recent solo exhibitions took place at Interstitial, Seattle (2015), Møre & Romsdal Kunstsenter, Molde (2015), SOIL Gallery, Seattle (with Pete Fleming) (2014), House of Foundation, Moss (2014), One Night Only, UKS, Oslo (2013), NoPlace, Oslo (2012) and Holodeck, Oslo (2011). Participations in group exhibitions include Høstutstillingen, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2014), No one should call you a dreamer, Galleri F15, Moss (2011) and (in collaboration with Jumana Manna’s BLESSED BLESSED OBLIVION) Galleri Maria Veie, Oslo (2010).

Marius Moldvaer (born 1985) is a visual artist and cultural theorist with a BFA in photography from Bergen National Academy of Art and an MFA in Critical Theory and Creative Research from Pacific Northwest College of Art Portland Oregon. Moldvaer’s visual practice and theoretic work is conducted in the intersection of nature and culture, where his work become an interpretation of landscape; how it appears as a physical body, how it is shaped by human interaction, and finally, how it is constructed culturally and mentally. In his later works Moldvaer has worked with landscape in this expanded view by exploring the connection between the corporal experience of the landscape and the spiritual, fusing the physical appearance of landscape with the more abstract notion of thought and feeling utilizing ideas and themes as varied as home, science, travel, pilgrimage, and religion.

Eline Mugaas (born 1969) received her artistic education from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City, and is considered one of the leading Norwegian artists practicing within the photographic medium. She also works with film, collage and curating, receiving praise for Hold stenhårdt fast på greia di, an exhibition of activist and feminist art she co-curated with Elise Storsveen for Kunsthall Oslo in 2013. With Storsveen she has since 2008 published the fanzine ALBUM#, which was released as a book in 2014. On 4 March 2016 Eline Mugaas opened together with Siri Aurdal an exhibition at Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, which is a unique collaborative project between two artists of different generations. Past exhibition participations include Young Pioneers, Kunsthall Oslo (2015), ALBUM#, The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard Massachusetts (2015), Take Form, Galleri Riis Stockholm (2014) and Millennium Magazines, MOMA, New York (2012). Mugaas is represented by Galleri Riis, Oslo/Stockholm.

Anne Lise Stenseth (born 1959 in Florø) lives and works in Oslo and Dale i Sunnfjord, Norway. She graduated from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in 1994 and Bergen National Academy of the Arts in 1983. Stenseth is currently enrolled at The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø in Creative Writing. Recent solo exhibitions and screenings took place at the Vilnius Art Academy, Lithuania (2015), The Writers House of Georgia / Center of Contemporary Art, Tbilisi (2014) ad Sogn og Fjordane Museum of Fine Art, Norway (2011). Participations in group exhibitions include Vestlandsutstillingen, Kunsthuset Kabuso, Øystese / Sogn og Fjordane Kunstmuseum, Førde /Kunstmuseet KUBE, Ålesund /Kunsthall Stavanger, Stavanger; “Replanted Identity” Biennale Internationale Design Saint Etienne, France (2015) and TIME is Love Screening, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, USA / PHOTON – Centre for Contemporary Photography, Ljubljana (2014).