27 August 2012

Indeterminate form

Indeterminate Form
Hedvig Sønstabø Thorkildsen, Idun Baltzersen, Jane Sverdrupsen, Hege Cathrine Thoresen
Trykk17, Stavanger
23.8.-2.9.12
The future of printing - selected works of students at the Art Academy in Bergen

Does the various printing techniques have a future, or do they belong in museums? Is printing relevant and challenging in contemporary art? This was what the curators Solveig Landa and Mona Orstad Hansen wanted to explore. To get an impression of what the future will be, they visited Bergen Art Academy, and selected works from the students.

Indeterminate form - exhibition view
Indeterminate Form at Trykk17

Hedvig Sønstabø Thorkildsen: svisj svisj
Hedvig Sønstabø Thorkildsen: svisj svisj

Print of a photo made on the subway in speed. A great result capturing and recreating this sense of speed. This is enchanced by her sound art work on the outside, emerging subway sounds on Nytorget square in Stavanger.

Idun Baltzersen: Lucretia, Ophelia (etter Millais, Rembrandt, Cranach)
Idun Baltzersen: Lucretia, Ophelia (etter Millais, Rembrandt, Cranach)

Here classical motives are taken in use in a new way, women of different times and of different qualities are put together, all vulnerable, all strong.

Jane Sverdrupsen: Selfsame
Jane Sverdrupsen: Selfsame

Everyone is unique, slightly or very different from another person. Sometimes it is not so easy to spot that difference, also when it comes to other phenomenons, like the two cometing food chains Rema1000 and Rimi. The same items, the same prices, the same interior, almost the same graphic design. Jane Sverdrupsen went to the core of the chains, to their founders, and looked for differences in their appearances. The differences as you can see from this visualisation, are not large. The work is printed like a graphic design showcase.


Jane Sverdrupsen: Medisinsk litteratur anno 2008
Jane Sverdrupsen: Medisinsk litteratur anno 2008

Text from a liposuction advertisement is put into the font and appearance of medieval times. At first glance it seems like one of those amusing texts describing an anachronistic, horrible or exotic procedure. Maybe the next generations will look at our times the same way. This work is depending in the printing technique to appear in this old style. This is a brilliant way of using this printing technique to achieve an impression, but at the same time you may ask, is printing also an anachronism, when it here is used to make the papers look like old?

Hege Cathrine Thoresen: Uten tittel
Hege Cathrine Thoresen: Uten tittel

Beautiful dark interiors printed in mezzotint.

Hege Cathrine Thoresen: All the same but yet so different
Hege Cathrine Thoresen: All the same but yet so different

Ceramic eggs on the floor, each has a printed text inside, like this: "Tell me what to search for".

*

Indeterminate Form - the title must rather point to the indeterminate future of printing than an indeterminate form of the printing process. To print something, the mould must first be definite and determinate. When the printing block is cut, there is no chance to change it. But the future of printing can be changed, it is not indeterminate, but relying on the future the printers create for it. After seeing these works, I am certain that I will see great printed art in the future.