Vestlandsutstillingen 2021
Project
7 – 31 October, 2021
(Montana, 2016) A group of boulders, thousands of metres above sea level, stranded between pine trees, the ground soft with needles, ready to ignite. Glacial Erratics. I squeezed my body between two of the large rocks, separate but close, the masses sat in direct relation to one another. Between them I listened, pressing my back against one and turning my cheek against the other, they held me there; in time and place. Within the gap, their charged limits, seemed frontiers of an uncertain attraction. Maybe the enormity of geology and landscape is more readily understood by body than mind anyway. Walking, smelling, feeling with your skin, absorbing sounds, only then can you start to accept geological time and the immense materials of earth.*
Artist-duo Skúladóttir & Blomgren have worked together for several years making site-specific installations. Their large-scale and sculptural work incorporates material information and impulses from the surrounding
(Montana, 2016) A group of boulders, thousands of metres above sea level, stranded between pine trees, the ground soft with needles, ready to ignite. Glacial Erratics. I squeezed my body between two of the large rocks, separate but close, the masses sat in direct relation to one another. Between them I listened, pressing my back against one and turning my cheek against the other, they held me there; in time and place. Within the gap, their charged limits, seemed frontiers of an uncertain attraction. Maybe the enormity of geology and landscape is more readily understood by body than mind anyway. Walking, smelling, feeling with your skin, absorbing sounds, only then can you start to accept geological time and the immense materials of earth.*
Artist-duo Skúladóttir & Blomgren have worked together for several years making site-specific installations. Their large-scale and sculptural work incorporates material information and impulses from the surrounding nature, local history and architectural features. In preparation for Vestlandsutstillingen 2018, they have visited Kunsthall Stavanger repeatedly to conduct local research and entered into dialogue with the location and architecture. They have specifically explored the relationship between “mineral extraction” and geological shaping in a site-specific work developed on-site.
The exhibition is curated by Randi Grov Berger and is included in the special edition of Vestlandsutstillingen 2018 (VU18), the annual traditional regional exhibition. VU18 consists of six solo exhibitions, and includes the institutions Kunsthuset Kabuso, Sogn og Fjordane Kunstmuseum, in cooperation with Sunnfjord Kunstlag, Haugesund Billedgalleri in collaboration with Haugesund Kunstforening, Kunstmuseet KUBE, Entrée and Kunsthall Stavanger. VU18 presents the artists Ragnhild Aamås, Magnhild Øen Nordahl, Trudi Jaeger, Eivind Egeland, Karen Skog and the artist-duo Blomgren & Skuladottir.
*Excerpt from the essay 'A Co-authored Geology' by Phoebe Cummings commissioned for the exhibition, available at Kunsthall Stavanger.
The artists have been supported by Bergen Municipality, Arts Council Norway, Norske Billedkunstnere, Icelandic Visual Arts Fund and Nordic Culture Point for this exhibition.
Vestlandsutstillingen is supported by Rogaland Fylkeskommune, Hordaland Fylkeskommune, Møre og Romsdal Fylkeskommune, and Sogn og Fjordane Fylkeskommune.
Karin Blomgren
b. 1987
b. 1987
Karin Blomgren (b. 1987 Stockholm) is a Swedish visual artist based in Bergen, Norway. She holds a MA in Fine Art from Bergen Academy of Art and Design (2014). She was awarded the Debutant Award 2016 by the Association of Norwegian Visual Artists, at Høstustillingen, Kunstnerns Hus, Oslo. For the coming year she is exhibiting her work in Steinkjer Kunstforening and Bodø Biennial. In collaboration with Erna E. Skúladóttir, she has presented large, spatial installations at Galleri F15, Moss, KRAFT, Bergen, Visningsrommet USF, Bergen, and most recently at Parcours Céramique Carougeois International Biennial, Switzerland.
Erna E Skúladóttir
b. 1983
b. 1983
Erna E Skúladóttir (b.1983 Reykjavik) is an Icelandic visual artist, living and working in-between Norway and Iceland, since graduating with a MA in Fine Art from Bergen Academy of Art and Design (2014). She is currently working on the project “Landscapes of Transformation: Illusion of Stability”, a site-specific project based in ceramics and geology which investigates transformation and fluidity of raw materials. Upcoming exhibitions include “Beyond the Object” at Uppsala Konstmuseum. In collaboration with Karin Blomgren, she has presented large, spatial installations at Galleri F15, Moss, KRAFT, Bergen, Visningsrommet USF, Bergen and most recently at Parcours Céramique Carougeois International Biennial, Switzerland.
