Jenny Magnusson
22 Oct - 04 Nov 2011
JENNY MAGNUSSON
Tjuvgods
22 October - 4 November, 2011
PETER BERGMAN presents Jenny Magnussons insatallation Tjuvgods.
In Jenny Magnusson’s installations, objects take on the space they occupy with an air of self-assuredness that seems to defy the mere facts of what they are and how they got to be there. Here, a piece of tape, an old domestic iron or a stack of plates can occupy the floor and “contain” the walls in a way that we would not suspect these objects of being capable of. Her installations, however modest and subtle in form, have the ability to take on and rework a space, in an active engagement with it where established orders are being reversed or loosened at the seams. Her work asks questions of the transience of objects and the uses we make of them, and within this lies a further questioning of our own action of making and viewing.
What happens when we treat the meaning of objects as merely transient, as something that we can ascribe as it suits us, then later change and re-mould? In her work for Appendix, entitled ‘Tjuvgods’ (‘Stolen Goods’), Magnusson traces the journey of an object; seemingly left behind and discarded by someone else. Once “found” it takes on various guises before reaching its current position installed as art in the gallery. The notion of transience and transport is imbued within its very making, as in unfolds into its temporary, “stolen” existence within the gallery space; as it is displayed there “on loan,” and on show. As such it is a “moveable entity”, designed to find its home in a space different to the one it was constructed in, and a purpose different to that it was designed for.
When Magnusson takes on an object and a space, she manages to re-energize both. By renewing an object’s potential for meaning she gives it a capability to both undo and expand, to demonstrate the possibilities as well as the limitations of our capabilities to give and perceive meaning. The energy that is released in the particular transition from one sphere of meaning to another, and the confidence with which this transition is being made, is what gives her work its very own particular strength, character and sense of humour, as it poses its questions of established orders with a in a way that is at once lighthearted and poignant.
Jenny Magnusson graduated from Valand School of Art in Gothenburg in 2000. She has shown extensively since, and recent solo exhibitions include "Aktion nr 6, Tyringe," with Patrik Elgström, Pid Web Gallery, Gothenburg, (2010), Konstföreningen Aura, Lund (2009) and Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar (2007). Recent group exhibitions include "Das Swedische Modell", The Forgotten Bar, Berlin, (2010), ”If space meant nothing”. Condotto C, Rom, (2010) and "Off the Wall", Gustavsbergs Konsthall, Stockholm, (2010). She was also part of the Stenastipendiaterna exhibition at Göteborgs konstmuseum, Gothenburg in 2006, and Modernautställningen at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, also in 2006. Grants include the Stena A Olsson grant for culture (2007) and the IASPIS Studio Grant (2001). She lives and works in Gothenburg.
Tjuvgods
22 October - 4 November, 2011
PETER BERGMAN presents Jenny Magnussons insatallation Tjuvgods.
In Jenny Magnusson’s installations, objects take on the space they occupy with an air of self-assuredness that seems to defy the mere facts of what they are and how they got to be there. Here, a piece of tape, an old domestic iron or a stack of plates can occupy the floor and “contain” the walls in a way that we would not suspect these objects of being capable of. Her installations, however modest and subtle in form, have the ability to take on and rework a space, in an active engagement with it where established orders are being reversed or loosened at the seams. Her work asks questions of the transience of objects and the uses we make of them, and within this lies a further questioning of our own action of making and viewing.
What happens when we treat the meaning of objects as merely transient, as something that we can ascribe as it suits us, then later change and re-mould? In her work for Appendix, entitled ‘Tjuvgods’ (‘Stolen Goods’), Magnusson traces the journey of an object; seemingly left behind and discarded by someone else. Once “found” it takes on various guises before reaching its current position installed as art in the gallery. The notion of transience and transport is imbued within its very making, as in unfolds into its temporary, “stolen” existence within the gallery space; as it is displayed there “on loan,” and on show. As such it is a “moveable entity”, designed to find its home in a space different to the one it was constructed in, and a purpose different to that it was designed for.
When Magnusson takes on an object and a space, she manages to re-energize both. By renewing an object’s potential for meaning she gives it a capability to both undo and expand, to demonstrate the possibilities as well as the limitations of our capabilities to give and perceive meaning. The energy that is released in the particular transition from one sphere of meaning to another, and the confidence with which this transition is being made, is what gives her work its very own particular strength, character and sense of humour, as it poses its questions of established orders with a in a way that is at once lighthearted and poignant.
Jenny Magnusson graduated from Valand School of Art in Gothenburg in 2000. She has shown extensively since, and recent solo exhibitions include "Aktion nr 6, Tyringe," with Patrik Elgström, Pid Web Gallery, Gothenburg, (2010), Konstföreningen Aura, Lund (2009) and Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar (2007). Recent group exhibitions include "Das Swedische Modell", The Forgotten Bar, Berlin, (2010), ”If space meant nothing”. Condotto C, Rom, (2010) and "Off the Wall", Gustavsbergs Konsthall, Stockholm, (2010). She was also part of the Stenastipendiaterna exhibition at Göteborgs konstmuseum, Gothenburg in 2006, and Modernautställningen at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, also in 2006. Grants include the Stena A Olsson grant for culture (2007) and the IASPIS Studio Grant (2001). She lives and works in Gothenburg.