Inland
Empire
2008
Agitator
Mixed media
280 x 70 x
Made out of
plywood, a pair of socks, a textile rag, a garbage bag, a megaphone and a
plastic bag from the hardware store chain Clas Ohlson, the Agitator stands as a dummy for political, social
and artistic agitation. The figure might resemble a mix between the
revolutionary freedom fighter stereotype and a Tarzan-like naïve nature’s
child. The anti-liberalist/globalist/capitalist may find his gadgets of
resistance in a transnational hardware store, just as the subversive artist
shops his toolkit in the supermarket.
Gardening at
Night
Oil on canvas
205 x
Planting dry
seeds into moist soil, fertilizing and weeding, letting plants grow, flourish
and eventually bear fruits, the gardener gently intervenes in nature’s course
and may share the harvest from his efforts. Could this be a useful metaphor for
the art process? The artist intervening into culture, under cover by night,
secretly bringing forward new but inherent meaning and concepts as strange
fruits start materializing…
Ghost against
the Machine
Oil on canvas
205 x
The two major
forces of the human psyche battling it out! On the one side: The machine,
symbolising the controllable rationale; the plain logic and the mechanic view
of linear cause and effect. And on the other side: the ghost, representing
nature’s mysteries, the uncontrollable psyche and the endless depths of the
universe. Culture v.s. nature.
This struggle, ladies and gentlemen, is going on daily within us and around us,
constituting our world. Let the games continue...
Winds of Change
mixed media
200 x 130 x
Dragonflies, a
silent breeze and, uh, something else… To encounter an object not knowing the reason
for its existence nor understanding its function can be a scary experience or
one of great relief depending on the context. For instance, coming across
dubious structures in the woods will slightly raise our level of awareness, for
although we know it must be from kids play, it reminds us of relics from
possible horrifying rites performed by strange cultures. So what is this
connection between the child (in us) and the culture of our fears, when their
objects might resemble each other to such extent?
Lovebirds
(Billboard)
mixed media and oil on canvas
286 x 300 x
Are clichés
less true just because they stick around and become embarrassing? A simple
naïve story: boy meets girl and together they build a home. Love… Then what? Happiness? Family… or domestic violence, divorce, riots
against bourgeois living? Commerce loves clichés, so we must too (or it never
would have worked), although superficially we really hate them. Well, this is a
billboard commercial promoting a simple cliché: Romance. Straight forward,
crudely done, i.e. from the heart(!). Can you believe
that? Nope- too embarrassing! This is art for crying out loud! There has to be
irony, a backdoor… Those crazy transavantgardes were
wrong, right?
Blackboard (Raise Hell)
mixed media
190 x 142 x
School
consists of a few things: Kids, a teacher, perhaps a roof, and always a
blackboard. Now this crudely made blackboard could be from rural Africa,
Soul
mixed media
201
x 70 x
What is a soul
if not detached from the body? But this idea of purity surely must mean that the
soul on its own is cut off from performing actions of any kind, as without the
body, any connection to the material world would be lacking. No socialising!
Left as a carcass stripped bare from its interface, the soul strives upwards,
casting its lonesome light into eternity…
Unknown Waters (to Simen)
oil on canvas
205 x
Some people
(and artists) go more head on into exploring unidentified territories than
others. And some sail away on unknown waters and never return. (Don’t we all,
and won’t we all in the end)