Isotop Fellesatelier, Magnus barfots gate
Opens 10 May 2019, 19:00
Organised and curated by David Harris
The Isotop artist studios are a hotbed of creativity, with its members working in disciplines ranging from wood carving, ceramics and photography, to painting, illustration and fashion design.
Their new exhibition space is christened by a group exhibition of eleven of the studio’s creators. The differences far outweigh the similarities in the works shown by the diverse creators, yet to a varying degree the works selected deal with transformation.
Whenever someone mistakenly believes Amber Ablett is not English, the artist learns the national anthem of the erroneous nation, affiliating herself with its national identity. Rune Werner Molnes’s portrays the raw transformative power of nature through his photographs, whilst Birgit Brühl breathes new life into unloved plates by transforming them into quirky new artworks.
Solvor Holan transforms our appreciation of OSB boards by hand printing their textures, and Siv Støldal’s alt-right shirt is stitched using zinc-coated fibre, said to have a transformative healing effect on the wearer. Marie Skreden has transformed everyday plastic sheet into woven three-dimensional fabric.
Fredrik Rysjedal’s illustrations show us a man practising Tibetan yoga, designed to stop the transformative process of ageing, and the staring crowd in Torje Sæbø’s work is abstractly transformed into a landscape of countless anonymous faces.
Linn Heidi Stokkedal’s photographic transformations occur in absolutely darkness - she specialises in hand-printing color prints in the darkroom with an “open tray” method, possibly unique in Norway (the exhibition showcases her first prints using this difficult method).
Klara Sofie Ludvigsen explores the boundary between photography and painting, whilst Biosenario strips the utilitarian from porcelain ware through their experimental collaboration.
