Group exhibition at Galerie Susan Nielsen, Paris, France 6 June to 18 July 2009. + Reopening 5–13 September.
The participating artists are: Rune Olsen, LELLO//ARNELL, Elise Storsveen, Halvor Bodin, Sofie Berntsen, Cecilia Jimenez and Christian Messel.
With Rock-Paper-Scissors – New Art from Norway galerie susan nielsen proudly introduces the work of eight artists whose artistic practices have all to some degree been informed, challenged, or shaped by their connection to Norway. The artist’s nationalities and residences are not univocally Norwegian, yet their work is part of what shapes a Norwegian contemporary art scene today. The exhibition focuses on two points: one being the use of paper as a means of shaping and redefining an outlook, the other being an attention to science or scientific exploration, whether it be a pseudo-scientific investigation into the mechanics of machinery, a zoological or sociological take on gender stereotypes and sexual preferences, or a systematic tracing of lines resulting in constructions of geometrical figures.
With Rock-Paper-Scissors – New Art from Norway, galerie susan nielsen seeks to provide a glimpse of an art scene that is currently booming with energy, enterprise, and talent.
Halvor Bodin (Lillehammer, Norway 1964), who lives and works in Oslo, studied political science before entering into the field of art through film production and graphic design. His artistic production includes large-scale installations and sculptural works as well as drawing, which he is showing in the present exhibition. Bodin’s drawings balance on the verge between the highly organic and an almost dry subtlety, which stems from intricate imagery and a delicately applied pencil. In some of Bodin’s drawings, his connection to Black Metal aesthetics breaks through the surface of restraint and imbues an image with a multitude of silent, grey flames that outline the jaw and barred teeth of a human figure, which then metamorphs into feather- or leaflike shapes only to melt into circular shapes resembling cell membranes. Thus, Bodin’s drawings allude to the power of creation as well as to the fragility of human existence and capture the viewer’s imagination as the shapes are nearly recognizable and yet remain elusive.
Text by Maria Gry Bregnbak, curator and art historian
The exhibition includes two new drawings by Halvor Bodin: Alexithymia II + Alexithymia III , 2009. Graphite on paper, 71 x 100 cm.