"BLANKNESS IS NOT A VOID" PUBLISHED IN WWW.ARTFORUM.COM
Author: Power Ekroth
12.05.05
11.17.05-12.18.05 STANDARD (OSLO), Oslo
Standard (Oslo) only opened its doors in April, but has already developed an ambitious program. For his first show in the space, the artist Gardar Eide Einarsson, who belongs to the Standard stable, has organized "Blankness Is Not a Void," an exhibition of artists whose work shows clear affinities with his own nihilistic approach. Einarsson has taken the preferred liberty of the artist-turned-curator, choosing pieces whose connection is intuitive rather than didactic; the somewhat inscrutable, epigraphic press release, featuring quotes from Friedrich Nietzsche, Alenka Zupancic, and The Damned, offers little explanatory help. Banks Violette's Not Yet Titled, 2005, a "wall" made of steel, hardware, plywood, and tinted epoxy, occupies the largest space in the small gallery. The work's polished surface quite literally proves Einarsson's titular conceit; it is less a void than a kind of black hole consuming the space around it. Untitled (Refuted Pearls), 2005, a necklace made by Marius Engh out of refuted plastic and Mein Tod, Mein Tod (Blank, Blank), 2005, by Terence Koh, locate meaning in material and broaden the show's concept. Perhaps only artists can get away with a curatorial endeavor that resembles a single piece of art; it is to Einarsson's credit that he has done this without undercutting the efforts of his peers.