Azar Alsharif, "Priceless Precision"

Azar Alsharif, "Priceless Precision", 2012

Azar Alsharif, "Priceless Precision", 2012

Azar Alsharif, "Priceless Precision", 2012

Azar Alsharif, "Priceless Precision", 2012

Stian Ådlandsvik

"One Day All Sheds Will Be Useful", 2006

Installation view: "Historical Detour (Consequences of a Slip of the Tongue Awarding
Denmark the North Sea)", 2006, Galleri Erik Steen.

The photo of the shed in the field hangs on the wall right outside my office. And the pallet stands up against the wall below it. Even though, many people who come by have a hard time noticing the connection between them. - Can you see it?

There is such a romantic feel to that photo: The tough, but at the same time sheltering mountainside, and the dark clouds in contrast to the soft sunlight that shines on the patches of snow.

But what about the the boards that are missing from the shed's wall? - Well yes, exactly, the pallet has been made from them. And it has become a beautiful pallet, carrying years of rain, snow and sunshine on its surface.

As romantic as all this may seem, the work's title introduces a political perspective: "Historical Detour (Consequences of a Slip of the Tongue Awarding Denmark the North Sea)". ... What if?

- If his native country were not entitled to sell oil from the North Sea, would the artist Stian Ådlandsvik then be making pallets from all the sheds that are no longer in use ("One Day All Sheds Will Be Useful")? - Or maybe then all the sheds would still be in use, like they were about fifty years ago...





Documentation: S. Ådlandsvik and Lutz-Rainer Müller,
 "You only tell me you love me when you're drunk",
Hordaland Art Centre, 2010






Installation view: S. Ådlandsvik and Lutz-Rainer Müller,
 "You only tell me you love me when you're drunk",
Hordaland Art Centre, 2010







Installation view: S. Ådlandsvik and Lutz-Rainer Müller,
 "You only tell me you love me when you're drunk",
Hordaland Art Centre, 2010



Documentation  (from Hordaland Art Centre)

The other pictures document a work Stian Ådlandsvik recently executed together with Lutz-Rainer Müller in Bergen, Norway, and on the island Askøy, right outside of Bergen. It was titled You only tell me you love me when you're drunk and consisted of three parts: A model of a house which was to be demolished (bottom pictures); the house itself, altered according to the state the model was in after having travelled around the world; and sculptures made from the materials that were torn down.

More information about this project can be found at Hordaland Art Centre.

Harald Fenn

Harald Fenn, "Urban Melancholy", Oil on MDF, 1998.

Today I'll give you a small retrospective of the Norwegian artist Harald Fenn's paintings. The exhibition is hung chronologically, and I have chosen paintings that show the change in his work from straight lined abstraction in which the different textures in the lines create a certain depth of field (above), via:

Harald Fenn, "Pastorale Golden Green", 2000.

Straight vertical lines on top of blurred out crossing lines which remind me of squinting my eyes against sunlight reflected on water in the summer.
Then further on to:

Harald Fenn, "Exterior 01", 2005.

Lines that have softened and hang down limply. The title tells us that we are still outdoors. Maybe the light shines through foliage now. We seem to be enclosed in the green somehow, but in the next picture we get a much better overview:

Harald Fenn, "Interventions no 5", 2007

Voila: There is discernable landscape in the background. However, Fenn still keeps a balance between the abstract brush-painted lines in the foreground and figurative spray-paint in the back. So we go on to:

Harald Fenn, "Horizon", 2010.

The lines having disappeared completely. Here we get a clear unfettered view of the ocean and the sky.


This is my favorite painting from Fenn's current show at the Erik Steen Gallery. And it forms a turning point, I think, in his continuous movement toward larger depth. Quite naturally, that is, since one cannot ever gaze further than the horizon...