DWELLING

SOLO EXHIBITION

Dwelling was a solo exhibition at the ISCA Gallery in Oslo in May, 2022.

The gallery being a bright corner space with large windows, those qualities became the starting point for what was a collection of works in various materials, such as wood, textile and glass.

Most of the works were placed in the window area, utilizing the natural light from the outside, allowing the works to be experienced from two different sides and lighting situations.

This fascination of two-sidedness was one important point of interest, others were opalescence, tessellation and the folding and bending of two-dimensional shapes.

Installation photos by Julie Hrnčířová.

The Haze curtains were white, viscose curtains with pairs of woolen, multi-colored pompoms on each side of the opalescent sheet. The small sprays of color appear either clear and blurry depending on which side it is viewed, creating a simple illusion of movement or drop shadow.

The White Carrier glass works are similar in that colored pieces of glass are glued on both sides of a white, opalescent sheet, allowing colors to blend and blur.

The Folded Spheres curtains were also based on an opalescent sheet, but here the colored element is sandwiched between two, white sheets. In low lighting, the color fade, and when backlit the color becomes stronger. Furthermore, the color discs are folded, increasing the color in the overlapping fields.

The Channeler (duo-toned, white and yellow) sculptures are also exploring the folding and bending of flat shapes into three-dimensional sculptures. They are actual cardboard cut-outs covered in acrylic plaster and painted. Their two-sidedness is highlighted by the white and yellow sides, its shape exploring ways in which the yellow can find its way onto the white of the other side, or surrounding surfaces, via the indirect diffusion of light.

The Tessellator (Visitors) wood sculptures are also examining how very few cuts and operations can alter a shape dramatically, all sculptures starting with the same-sized wooden block.

As with the Tessellators (Vibers) wall reliefs below (shapes originating from the mural relief at Kristian Augusts gate 11), they explore the simple method of generating organic, tessellating shapes by way of manipulating the square.

Using a band saw instead of scissors, the wooden blocks are cut, yet never reduced or augmented. Instead, each cut-out is moved to the other side of the block, in effect making a three-dimensional, organically shaped tile.

The same type of wooden blocks was also used in making a series of stools, combined in various combinations and altered with simple cuts using a band saw.

Other found wood was used to make other stool experiments.

For both stools and sculptures the surface treatment is key, the pigmented linseed oil tinting the wood in ways similar to colored glass, whereas the fired-and-brushed approach brings out the tree ring texture, a contrast to its silkiness when touched.

Scattered around are single colored glass dome shapes in white, Corian frames.

Perked above the entrance is a lamp in the same silhouette, the sole light source at the gallery at night.