June 5–14, 2015
Opening: Friday, June 5, 18h
Oslo National Academy of the Arts
Fossveien 24, 0551
Oslo
Hours: Monday–Friday 15–20h,
Saturday–Sunday 12–18h
The Department of Art and Craft at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts is pleased to announce the final degree show for the 2015 MFA in Medium and Material Based Art: In the Usual Direction of Travel curated by Jennifer Allen.
The exhibition features new works by Patrik Berg, Christian Magnus Tømmeraas Berg, Maia Birkeland, Matilda Björkne, Stine Bråthen, Stein Are Kjærås Dahl, Emil Gustafsson, Jeanett Gustavsen, hÅkon gÅre, Jørgen Frederik Scheel Haarstad, Anita Hanch-Hansen, Elin Hedberg, Andrea Wikhammer Heir, Steinar Laumann, Aron-Irving Li, Tina Lindvall, Rebecca Szabo Onstad, Zahra Rashid and Hege Cathrine Hauge Thoresen.
In the Usual Direction of Travel manifests the movement at the heart of this exhibition. Visitors are invited to walk across the campus of the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and to follow an itinerary: from the inside to the outside, from one artwork to the next, from the academy’s Seilduken Galleri down to the shore of the Akerselva River which flows through Oslo.
This itinerary is very much “in the usual direction of travel” for the artists who use the campus daily, although most do not associate walking across these well-worn paths with a trip. The word “travel” adds a sense of accomplishing a voyage, wandering, expedition, trek or adventure—even if the destinations are nearby. Travel—a Norwegian neologism taken from the French travail (work)—is also about having a great deal to do.
Making art can be a way of moving—with little displacement and much discovery: on a wood block, in a ceramic glaze, in a copper wire or on a thread. Inspirations include imaginary trips, like Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), J.G. Ballard’s Concrete Island (1973) and Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1978-80) as well as real travels that involved next to no movement: Xavier de Maistre’s Voyage Around My Room (1794), Jean Cocteau’s Opium (1930), George Perec’s Species of Spaces (1974) and even Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book (1002) which articulates an elaborate, intensive and immediate aesthetic experience of materials, from textiles to paper.
For further information and announcements, please see the exhibition website, the department website or contact Anne Line Abotnes, Information Officer. The catalogue has been designed by Büro Otto Sauhaus, Berlin.
