A K Dolven
24 Jan - 11 Mar 2006
A K Dolven | amazon and madonna
Sophie Tottie | Red Pilot
24th January – 26th February 2006
Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. -18 p.m.
Vernissage: Saturday, 21st January, 6 p.m.
Kindly supported by the Norwegian and the Swedish Embassy
carlier | gebauer will be inaugurating two new solo exhibitions on 21st January.
A K Dolven (* 1953 in Oslo) also calls our habitual ways of looking into question. The artist, who in 2000 was the first woman to win the Fred-Thieler Prize for Painting for her work in the media of painting, film and video, blurs the boundaries between genres. She transforms painting into film, video into painting, sets images in motion and introduces time into perception. In December 2005 Dolven received the Prince Eugen Medal from the Swedish king for outstanding artistic achievements. In her cycle Madonna with Man, begun in 2005, Dolven transposes the established art historical motif of the Virgin Mother holding her child into the contemporary business world. Dolven works with real people, she uses no actors; in the films Madonna with Man – Oslo and Madonna with Man – London the Madonna is played by a business woman, the child by a man. As in her earlier works, here again it is the significance of the cinematic/installational and contextual frame that endows the subject-matter with a timeless topicality. The window onto the world typical of the genre of the Renaissance paintings becomes a large glass façade, extending the broad reaches of the horizon into the exhibition space and thus generating a vision of infinity. Passing ferries or the play of the wind in the flags behind the glass show life outside, beyond the stillness of the interior. The office still life is further disrupted in Madonna with Man – London by the surreal element of an aquarium full of fishes. The intimacy of the interior has given way to the semi-public privacy of a modern control centre where various power lines converge. The use of fixed frames and the silent projection on a free-hanging large-scale screen at the centre of Arch 52 further underscore the ambiguity of this type of space.
In the pure speed and unadulterated movement of the female-warrior becoming a shot, the small-format 16mm film projection amazon places another vision of androgynous femininity in counterpoint to the interior scenes depicting the Madonnas. Through the short sequences and rapid changes of angle the impression of a single “shot” is created briefly and repeatedly; this not only breaks down the limits of the viewer’s physical perception but also compellingly transforms this into psychological-affective action. Using 150 cuts in a total of 1,5 minutes of film material, Dolven brings into her video works genuinely filmic techniques for the first time; in the short break of half a minute between two screenings, the viewers can find some time to catch up and to shield themselves with their curiosity for the velocity of the shot.
For detailed press information and photos, please contact Jutta Voorhoeve at jv@carliergebauer.com or by phone +49 (0) 30 280 81 10.
© A K Dolven
Madonna with Man - Oslo
Madonna with Man – London
2005
Camera: Vegar Moen
Installation: Jorma Saarikko
High Definition Picture
Duration: 4:30 min.
Edition of 5 + 2 a.p
Sophie Tottie | Red Pilot
24th January – 26th February 2006
Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. -18 p.m.
Vernissage: Saturday, 21st January, 6 p.m.
Kindly supported by the Norwegian and the Swedish Embassy
carlier | gebauer will be inaugurating two new solo exhibitions on 21st January.
A K Dolven (* 1953 in Oslo) also calls our habitual ways of looking into question. The artist, who in 2000 was the first woman to win the Fred-Thieler Prize for Painting for her work in the media of painting, film and video, blurs the boundaries between genres. She transforms painting into film, video into painting, sets images in motion and introduces time into perception. In December 2005 Dolven received the Prince Eugen Medal from the Swedish king for outstanding artistic achievements. In her cycle Madonna with Man, begun in 2005, Dolven transposes the established art historical motif of the Virgin Mother holding her child into the contemporary business world. Dolven works with real people, she uses no actors; in the films Madonna with Man – Oslo and Madonna with Man – London the Madonna is played by a business woman, the child by a man. As in her earlier works, here again it is the significance of the cinematic/installational and contextual frame that endows the subject-matter with a timeless topicality. The window onto the world typical of the genre of the Renaissance paintings becomes a large glass façade, extending the broad reaches of the horizon into the exhibition space and thus generating a vision of infinity. Passing ferries or the play of the wind in the flags behind the glass show life outside, beyond the stillness of the interior. The office still life is further disrupted in Madonna with Man – London by the surreal element of an aquarium full of fishes. The intimacy of the interior has given way to the semi-public privacy of a modern control centre where various power lines converge. The use of fixed frames and the silent projection on a free-hanging large-scale screen at the centre of Arch 52 further underscore the ambiguity of this type of space.
In the pure speed and unadulterated movement of the female-warrior becoming a shot, the small-format 16mm film projection amazon places another vision of androgynous femininity in counterpoint to the interior scenes depicting the Madonnas. Through the short sequences and rapid changes of angle the impression of a single “shot” is created briefly and repeatedly; this not only breaks down the limits of the viewer’s physical perception but also compellingly transforms this into psychological-affective action. Using 150 cuts in a total of 1,5 minutes of film material, Dolven brings into her video works genuinely filmic techniques for the first time; in the short break of half a minute between two screenings, the viewers can find some time to catch up and to shield themselves with their curiosity for the velocity of the shot.
For detailed press information and photos, please contact Jutta Voorhoeve at jv@carliergebauer.com or by phone +49 (0) 30 280 81 10.
© A K Dolven
Madonna with Man - Oslo
Madonna with Man – London
2005
Camera: Vegar Moen
Installation: Jorma Saarikko
High Definition Picture
Duration: 4:30 min.
Edition of 5 + 2 a.p