Intro
Technology may dictate our future, but art still has the ability to push the medium of photography; it still has the ability to challenge ideas of time, space and fragility. In this show by Copenhagen-based artists Louise Bøgelund Saugmann and Jenny Nordquist, photography doesn’t depict the literate or the tangible. It explores an abstract perception of the space we occupy and the moment we live in. A moment that will cease to exist.
Louise Bøgelund Saugmann spent 10 days meditating in an Indian temple before she even considered taking her camera out of the bag. Inspired by Surrealist automatism, as a means of being free of rational control, she herself had to reach the unconscious, before she was able to document her experience. In He Who Knows is a Master of Himself she embraces the Vipassana meditation philosophy, which demands complete silence and serenity from its practitioners. Saugmann’s work captures this moment and the mental conditions; the experience of stillness, calm, immersion and the intense energy of the space. What might be deemed banal and prosaic - shots of streaming light, draped mosquito nets and worn sockets - are elevated to something spiritual and sensuous. Through a meditative work process she has captured the spirit of the place and created a match between significance and void.
In Leaving No Shadow In The Mirror, Jenny Nordquist creates photographs using hand-coloured glass plates from the 19th century. The plates - originally used as slides in magic lantern projectors - depict an imposing and incredible nature. Man’s quest for mastery is visible with every pick axe that pierces the raw glaciers and the barren landscapes. It exposes our instinct to explore, to discover and to extend our perspective to new horizons. But it also speaks to something more fleeting and fragile. Our ambitions and desires prevail, but the images are fading. The silver emulsion on the glass plate is dissolving, mimicking a trickle of soot slowly eroding the glacial scenery. Nordquist has layered the images to create a more fragmented and abstract landscape, one that is altered by human intervention and doomed by decay. The translucent glass plates also become a mirror of human existence in which we can see our desires reflected but where no shadow will be left.
Installation shots
Fotogalleri Vasli Souza
Damplassen 21
0852, Oslo
Norway
Opening hours:
Thursday – Friday:
12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Saturday – Sunday:
12:00 am – 4:00 pm
Monday – Wednesday:
Closed
The gallery is kindly supported by:
Tor S. Ulstein :)
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