THE LANDSCAPE BEFORE MAN
My current work explores the cosmic perspective by juxtaposing it with my immediate and earthbound environment. This exploration is founded in the laws of physics as well as in obscure mystery, and embedded in the shroud of abstraction. I strive to give these hybrid ideas a humanized form. Most of the pieces in this show were conceived by turning observations from my immediate surroundings into sculpture, sound, installation and painting. Further, the instrumental function of these pieces comes to life when it can stimulate to a contemplation on the magnitude of macrocosm, shifting the attention from the personal to the cosmic perspective. I envision a passage, through my own mind and towards what lies beyond — “The percept is the landscape before man, in the absence of man.”(Deleuze & Guattari, Qu'est-ce que la philosophie? 1991)
The exhibition can be seen as an introverted view of themes spun out of the anthropocentric hypothesis. It holds its relevance as a subjective impression of the forces unfolding. We, as human beings are in a privileged position and hold therefore a responsibility. Not only for the future generations of our species but for the ecological system as a whole. One can imagine that, in the end, the Sun will devour us all in an inconceivable cataclysmic event. A more plausible scenario, however, is that we will cause our own extinction. In the meantime, we will all have the chance to prudently influence the course forward.
Beijing is an ideal location for my exhibition A Sudden Liberating Thought. Ideal because here the work extends its impact into an experience beyond the walls of the gallery. Bridging the gap between the abstract and reality, as you leave the exhibition and walk down the street: evident on the days when the smog envelops the city and you experience the light but distinct physical discomfort of inhaling the densely polluted air. A potent reminder that the image of a dystopic future, residing in our collective imagination, in many ways exists as a current reality.
Today the air quality again reached hazardous levels. Looking out through the windows one might imagine emancipation in the form of a strong, liberating wind, which sweeps the city clean. We all know better days will come, as a temporary reprieve — days when the contour of the Yan mountains again appear as nature's hallmark at the horizon.
Henning Olav Espedal 11.10.2014
---
Henning Olav Espedal
”A Sudden Liberating Thought”
Curated by Bjørn Inge Follevaag & Feng Boyi
The Norwegian artist Henning Olav Espedal addresses themes such as predestination, determinism and the possibility of escape in his exhibition “A Sudden Liberating Thought”. In a monumental, industrial field installation of sculptures and sound as well as in his paintings, Espedal documents a state of collapse and constant regeneration.
The American artist Robert Smithson made a series of works in Britain, among them the unrealized “Sprawling Mounds” in which he approached the strip-mining industry in a massive environmental art project. The sculptor Roelof Louw wrote an essay where he imagined how a visit to such a site would unfold: Visiting the project was like “setting out on a pilgrimage to a wasteland” with enormous white mounds of eroded misshapen surfaces of gravel and rubble in an abominable mess – “a place where social values have fallen into disorder, where wealth has turned into waste”. (From the article To the Ends of the Earth: Art and Environment (2012) Tate.org.uk) What Smithson refers to is the term entropy; a doctrine of inevitable decline and degeneration in which our use of resources and raw material at some stage cannot rely on recycling. He says ”there's a kind of equation between the enjoyment of life and waste. Probably the opposite of waste is luxury. Both waste and luxury tend to be useless”.
Espedal approaches the concept of entropy through painting and gives us here a panoramic view of entropic forces in action. The distant view leads us to reflect on our position as part of a larger cosmic story as well as our day to day life by using bricks, a familiar illustrative form.
In their work Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944) the German philosophers Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, writing from their exile in the US, stated: “What we had set out to do was nothing less than to explain why humanity, instead of entering a truly human state, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism”. The alienation in our modern times is seen as rooted in the instrumentality of reason and technological manipulation as a precursor to the entire history of mankind. But in our times, they write, it is no longer rooted in a specific historical formation, but has become blind. And yet, as the philosopher Sloterdijk notices, «humans are beings that cannot not practice». The vita active is the way of being-in-the-world, it resides deep inside the human psyché. So how to act better? As Adorno wrote in Minima Moralia (1951): «Life is not yet life», das Leben leben niche.
The human impact on the world as such, exemplified by the growing human influence on land use, ecosystems, biodiversity, and species extinction have made some geologists suggest that we can replace the holocene with a new geological epoch, the anthropocene. There is no turning back, they say, now it is time to ackowledge how – and to what extent – human activities have had global impact on the Earth's ecosystems.
Many Chinese artists, especially within contemporary photography, have addressed environmental issues in their work. Artists such as Hong Hao with his images composed from reassembled wastes, Chi Peng’s images of excessive and non-sustainable growth, Liu Jin who portrays scaffolds around newly constructed high-rises in cities, Ma Hongjie with his photographs of families with their meager belongings assembled outside their soon to be abandoned houses, Mu Chen+Shao Yinong portray assembly halls in rural villages falling into disrepair, Wang Qingsong with his “Follow Me” blackboard of logos of major international corporations, Yao Lu with his beautiful classical Chinese landscapes made from waste at construction sites, or as in the works of Jin Jiangbo whose images depict abandoned production facilities which are no longer profitable. (“Never Equal Distance to the Moon”, Stiftelsen314.com)
In his work Henning Olav Espedal easily falls into a category of concerned artists discussing possible future scenarios. His sculptures have references to manmade disasters, to power stations or impending danger. In his sound-work we can vaguely register a faint whisper suggesting that our civilization is fading into oblivion. And his brick paintings, where he paints with concrete, carry references to the destruction of heritage, like the demolishing of China’s hutongs. Their traces are removed. Giving space to superstructures of our time, mastodonts of concrete, glass and steel -the ruins of the future. A future based on the concept of perpetual material growth, which in itself is unsustainable, and its inevitable consequence is suffering.
Even if one agrees that ours is a culture dominated by insensivity to pain and a loss of memory, it is also true that there is simply no laying to rest the scars of violence and the ghosts of past suffering. Espedal epitomizes Hegel’s thesis: “as long as there is an awareness of suffering among human beings there must also be art as the objective form of that awareness.” But as Viriginia Woolf wrote: “But for pain words are lacking.”
We cannot define the future, yet that is exactly what our politicians aim to do, by implementing change. China’s politicians have also changed the future. Some would say with tremendous success, but all will agree that this change has come at a price. Former Chairman of the Communist Party, Deng Xiaoping, defined China’s future with the slogan: “One change a year, one big change in three years, and one unidentifiable transformation in five years.” China’s lifting of millions of citizens from poverty to affluence is an impressive achievement in itself. The introduction of a liberal market economy, within the existing political system, has to a large extent been a success. But the unidentifiable transformation Deng speaks of involves massive structural changes to the social, economic and cultural fabric of China. In the timespan of less than a generation China has gone from bicycle to car, road to highway, hutong to high-rise, enterprise to industry and village to metropolis. An example of the scale of China’s development can be observed in such projects as the Three Rivers Dam project or in the flattening of 700 mountains in Lanzhou to build a new metropolis. So perhaps the folk tale about the old peasant Yu Gong, who decided to move two inconveniently located mountains away from blocking the entrance to his home, is true: He struggled terribly, but ultimately succeeded. Hence the Chinese idiom "Yu Gong moves the mountains."
China’s role as production hub for the world has also had consequences beyond improving the population’s living conditions; Consequences for its air, water and soil. The never ending desire for cheap labor and enterprise expansion by the West has also affected China.
The struggle to cope with progress, to foresee possible futures and find solutions, is a vital issue for China’s authorities. Some of these issues are already being addressed. Affluence increases consumption. On its current development path food, water, oil, gas, minerals, transport and energy become commodities China's population increasingly requires, and all of these resources are limited in supply. With increased affluence comes increased use of these shared resources, but also increased responsibility. The way we handle our resources, our waste and our environment eventually becomes a question of survival. It is a collective responsibility where key capitalist elements such as personal gain eventually must yield to the needs of the many.
This exhibition by Henning Olav Espedal offers an artist’s perspective on some of the choices we have made and what lies ahead.
Bjørn Inge Follevaag 2014
---
HERE / NOW (all around us) -Entropy
The following text is an attempt to contextualize my work and to lead my viewer to further interpretation, beyond the initial impression.
Entropy can shortly be described as the deterioration of a closed system over the course of time. In any closed system the chances for a development towards disorder, breakdown and chaos is infinitely higher than the opposed development. Towards a higher order- or, even the maintenance of order within the system.
This reality is my motivation for creating, among other works, a suite of paintings. The «Entropy-paintings».
Entropy as a theme have infinte variations. In the paintings this is visualised through rectangular building-blocks or «bricks». They are ordered in two states. One systematic, constructive state and one disordered, chaotic state.
All man-made constructions is destined to become ruins. The entropic process will leave them completely demolished. Nothing but dust left. The paintings depicts stylized moments of this inevitable deterioration of mass.
The theory of the big bang implies that the universe in the beginning was a place of zero entropy. All matter and all energy where compressed in a ultra-compact singular point. After the big bang, the matter and the energy spread out in all directions and the universe expanded at an enourmous rate. It have continued expanding since and the entropy have gradually increased. It will continue increasing until it brings us to a thermal equilibrium. When this happens, we are in a state of maximum entropy: The universe has now one homogenous temperature.
Energy transfers generate excess heat, a waste-product of flowing energy. When we reach maximum entropy, all possible energy in the universe have been converted to heat. At this point there is nothing left to burn.
Entropy leads us ultimately to an end (and the implicit possibility of a new beginning).
Henning Olav Espedal 21.09.2013
---
ORIGO
Del en: Konsept
”Det du ser er det du ser”
Bruce Glaser, New Nihilism or New Art?, Radio-intervju med Frank Stella, Donald Judd og Dan Flavin, Februar 1964, Gjenngitt s.197-201, Minimalism, utgitt I serien Themes and movements, Phaidon Press Limited, 2000
Mennesket søker etter forklaring og orden. Ved forklaring utledes sannhet, og orden utleder systemer. Sannheter og systemer eksisterer ikke som absolutte, begreper og former er i konstant forandring.
"For en kunstner som ønsket å utvide sin forståelse av synet i vitenskapelig retning lå altså rutenettet der som en kunnskapsmatrise. Gjennom sin abstraksjon skapte det en av kunnskapens basislover – nemlig atskillelsen av filteret vi sanser gjennom og filteret i den virkelige verden.”
Rosalind E. Krauss, Grids, Første gang trykket i tidskriftet October nr.9, 1979, Gjengitt s. 21 i tekstsamlingen Avantgardens orginalitet og andre modernistiske myter, Oversatt av Agnete Øye, Utgitt på norsk i serien Artes, Pax Forlag, 2002
Rutenettet er bygd opp av identiske kvadrater som ligger i ordnet forhold til hverandre. Prinsippet danner et nettverk, som på grunn av sin repetative, identiske struktur kan brukes til å måle rom og form. Endimensjonalitet eksisterer kun i en linje. Ved å la linjen krysses etableres todimensjonalitet i et plan, organisert matematisk, oppstår rutenettet. Ved å erstatte kvadratene med moduler beskriver rutenettet volum og oppfattes som en tredimensjonal struktur. De tre grunnformene, linje, rute og modul systematiserer vår visuelle erfaring.
Rutenettet har medført en rekke konsekvenser for billedkunsten. Perspektivets romlighet avhenger av evnen til å kunne forestille seg et rutenett projisert mot et dybdepunkt. Dette skaper illusjonen av tredimensjonalitet i et plan. Senere i det moderne maleriet ble rutenettstrukturen gradvis flatet ut mot selve billedplanet. Modernismens endepunkt ble nådd når illusjonen opphørte å eksistere i bildet, og beskrivelsen av lerretets flate karakter ble maleriets mål og innhold: det monokrome maleriet.
"Vi må et godt stykke bakover i kunsthistorien for å finne tidligere eksempler på rutenettformer. Vi må helt tilbake til fjorten- og femtenhundretallet, til avhandlinger om perspektivet og til Uccellos, Leonardos eller Dürers utsøkte studier, der perspektivlinjene er innskrevet på den avbildede verdenen som dens organiserende armatur. Men perspektivstudier er egentlig ikke tidligere eksempler på rutenett. Perspektiv var til syvende og sist det virkeliges vitenskap, ikke en måte å trekke seg tilbake fra virkeligheten på. Perspektivet var en demonstrasjon av hvordan man kunne legge virkeligheten og fremstillingen av den oppå hverandre, av hvordan det malte bildet og dets referent i virkeligheten rent faktisk sto i forbindelse med hverandre, idet det første var en form for kunnskap om den andre. Alt ved rutenettet motsetter seg denne forbindelsen, det avskjærer den alt fra begynnelsen av, til forskjell fra perspektivet kan ikke rutenettet legge romligheten i et rom eller et landskap eller en gruppe figurer over på overflaten av et maleri. Om det i det hele tatt legger noe over noe annet er det faktisk intet annet enn bildets egen overflate. Det er en overføring der ingenting skifter plass. Man kunne nesten si at overflatens fysiske egenskaper blir lagt oppå denne samme overflatens estetiske egenskaper. Og disse to planene, det fysiske og det estetiske, viser seg å være det samme planet; de er koekstensive og, gjennom rutenettets abscisser og ordinater, koordinate. Betraktet på denne måten er rutenettet i dypeste forstand en naken og determinert materialisme."
s. 10-11, Avantgardens orginalitet og andre modernistiske myter, R. Krauss
Geometriske prinsipper er tenkt og materialisert av mennesket utfra kunnskapen om organiske former. Menneskelig sansning kan deles opp i abstrakt og konkret erkjennelse. Den konkrete baserer seg på enkeltindividets subjektive sansning og våre sansers erfaring. Abstrakt erkjennelse er tankenes evne til å skille ut visse trekk og se bort fra de øvrige. Denne prosessen følger lovmessighet og forutbestemte mønstre. En figur illuderer konkret virkelighet, mens et rutenett kan sees som et utrykk for menneskets abstrakte virkelighetserkjennelse. Rutenettet eksisterer som et imaginært Grunnplan i den konkrete sanseerfaringen. Ved å føre et synlig rutenett inn i det tredimensjonale oppstår en tøyelighet. De stringente linjene vil følge organiske formers bevegelse. Det oppstår en syntese mellom geometrisk og organisk form.
"Logisk uttrykt brer rutenettet seg i alle retninger i det uendelige. Enhver grense som et gitt maleri eller en gitt skulptur påtvinger rutenettet, kan i henhold til denne logikken kun betraktes som arbitrær."
s. 25, Avantgardens orginalitet og andre modernistiske myter, R. Krauss
Et skulpturellt kunstverk er materiale og mellomrom. Materien er organisk og kan i likhet med rommet forklares matematisk. Rutenettet projiseres som et filter over figuren. En kontrast mellom figurens materialitet og rutenettets immaterialitet oppstår. Rutenettet fører figuren og rommet sammen.
Del to: Praktisk utførelse
Realiseringen av prosjektet avhenger av dialektikken mellom figuren og det optiske rutenettet:
Figuren ble modellert i leire etter levende modell. Leirens utpregete plastiske egenskaper gjør at den kan etterligne naturens materialitet. Modellens umiddelbare sanselige helhet gjør modelleringsprosessen dynamisk. All nødvendig informasjon og inspirasjon finnes i modellen.
Rutenettet er skapt digitalt. For best gjengivelse har jeg valgt å bruke en videoprosjektor med sterk lampe slik at eventuelle eksterne lyskilder blendes. Rutenettet avtegnes skarpt på figuren. Det gir en balanse mellom de organiske formenes myke lysabsorpsjon og geometrisk form, som fortoner seg klar og ren.
Figurens endelige materiale er gips. Gipsens homogene kvalitet egner seg godt for billedprojeksjon. Lyset fordeles jevnt over den hvite overflaten og spillet mellom lys og skygge forsterkes.
Posituren er symmetrisk. Siden kroppens to sider ikke eksisterer som speilbilde av hverandre, vil stillingen bidra til å fremheve legemets organiske form. Symmetri er idealet i menneskets oppfattelse av det vakre. En symmetrisk kropp eksisterer ikke. Rutenettet måler ”naturens avvik”.
Del tre: Utrykk
Figurens ekstatiske utrykk peker mot det oversanselige. Ett kjennetegn ved ekstatisk tilstand er at bevisttheten om jeget, tid og rom opphører å eksistere. Man opplever å inngå i en helhet med verdensaltet. Tilstanden kan beskrives som både innadvent og overskridende. En ekstase bunner ut i menneskets behov for å løsrive seg fra den konkrete verden. Vår materielle undergang er determinert. Derfor søker vi å skille sjel fra materie.
"Mystikken pendler mellom lidenskapen for ekstase og skrekken for det tomme rom. Man kan ikke kjenne det ene uten det andre. Begge to forutsetter en steil vilje til å gjøre sjelen til et tabula rasa, en streben mot psykologisk innholdsløshet ... Når sjelen først er moden for en varig og fruktbar tomhet, hever den seg opp til en total utslettelse. Bevisstheten utvider seg utover grensene for kosmos. Det å ribbe den for forestillinger er den grunnleggende betingelse for den ekstatiske tilstand og for opplevelsen av intethet. Man ser ikke annet enn intethet. Og den er blitt alt. Ekstase er et fullstendig nærvær uten objekt, et fullt tomrom. Den er et gys som farer gjennom intetheten, en invasjon av væren i det absolutte fravær. Tomrommet er betingelsen for ekstasen slik ekstasen er betingelsen for tomrommet."
E. M. Cioran, s 29, Tårer og hellighet, Oversatt av Bertil Knudsen og Knut E. Sparre, Utgitt i serien Cappelens upopulære skrifter, Cappelen Akademisk Forlag AS 1996
Henning Olav Espedal 2005
---
My current work explores the cosmic perspective by juxtaposing it with my immediate and earthbound environment. This exploration is founded in the laws of physics as well as in obscure mystery, and embedded in the shroud of abstraction. I strive to give these hybrid ideas a humanized form. Most of the pieces in this show were conceived by turning observations from my immediate surroundings into sculpture, sound, installation and painting. Further, the instrumental function of these pieces comes to life when it can stimulate to a contemplation on the magnitude of macrocosm, shifting the attention from the personal to the cosmic perspective. I envision a passage, through my own mind and towards what lies beyond — “The percept is the landscape before man, in the absence of man.”(Deleuze & Guattari, Qu'est-ce que la philosophie? 1991)
The exhibition can be seen as an introverted view of themes spun out of the anthropocentric hypothesis. It holds its relevance as a subjective impression of the forces unfolding. We, as human beings are in a privileged position and hold therefore a responsibility. Not only for the future generations of our species but for the ecological system as a whole. One can imagine that, in the end, the Sun will devour us all in an inconceivable cataclysmic event. A more plausible scenario, however, is that we will cause our own extinction. In the meantime, we will all have the chance to prudently influence the course forward.
Beijing is an ideal location for my exhibition A Sudden Liberating Thought. Ideal because here the work extends its impact into an experience beyond the walls of the gallery. Bridging the gap between the abstract and reality, as you leave the exhibition and walk down the street: evident on the days when the smog envelops the city and you experience the light but distinct physical discomfort of inhaling the densely polluted air. A potent reminder that the image of a dystopic future, residing in our collective imagination, in many ways exists as a current reality.
Today the air quality again reached hazardous levels. Looking out through the windows one might imagine emancipation in the form of a strong, liberating wind, which sweeps the city clean. We all know better days will come, as a temporary reprieve — days when the contour of the Yan mountains again appear as nature's hallmark at the horizon.
Henning Olav Espedal 11.10.2014
---
Henning Olav Espedal
”A Sudden Liberating Thought”
Curated by Bjørn Inge Follevaag & Feng Boyi
The Norwegian artist Henning Olav Espedal addresses themes such as predestination, determinism and the possibility of escape in his exhibition “A Sudden Liberating Thought”. In a monumental, industrial field installation of sculptures and sound as well as in his paintings, Espedal documents a state of collapse and constant regeneration.
The American artist Robert Smithson made a series of works in Britain, among them the unrealized “Sprawling Mounds” in which he approached the strip-mining industry in a massive environmental art project. The sculptor Roelof Louw wrote an essay where he imagined how a visit to such a site would unfold: Visiting the project was like “setting out on a pilgrimage to a wasteland” with enormous white mounds of eroded misshapen surfaces of gravel and rubble in an abominable mess – “a place where social values have fallen into disorder, where wealth has turned into waste”. (From the article To the Ends of the Earth: Art and Environment (2012) Tate.org.uk) What Smithson refers to is the term entropy; a doctrine of inevitable decline and degeneration in which our use of resources and raw material at some stage cannot rely on recycling. He says ”there's a kind of equation between the enjoyment of life and waste. Probably the opposite of waste is luxury. Both waste and luxury tend to be useless”.
Espedal approaches the concept of entropy through painting and gives us here a panoramic view of entropic forces in action. The distant view leads us to reflect on our position as part of a larger cosmic story as well as our day to day life by using bricks, a familiar illustrative form.
In their work Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944) the German philosophers Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, writing from their exile in the US, stated: “What we had set out to do was nothing less than to explain why humanity, instead of entering a truly human state, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism”. The alienation in our modern times is seen as rooted in the instrumentality of reason and technological manipulation as a precursor to the entire history of mankind. But in our times, they write, it is no longer rooted in a specific historical formation, but has become blind. And yet, as the philosopher Sloterdijk notices, «humans are beings that cannot not practice». The vita active is the way of being-in-the-world, it resides deep inside the human psyché. So how to act better? As Adorno wrote in Minima Moralia (1951): «Life is not yet life», das Leben leben niche.
The human impact on the world as such, exemplified by the growing human influence on land use, ecosystems, biodiversity, and species extinction have made some geologists suggest that we can replace the holocene with a new geological epoch, the anthropocene. There is no turning back, they say, now it is time to ackowledge how – and to what extent – human activities have had global impact on the Earth's ecosystems.
Many Chinese artists, especially within contemporary photography, have addressed environmental issues in their work. Artists such as Hong Hao with his images composed from reassembled wastes, Chi Peng’s images of excessive and non-sustainable growth, Liu Jin who portrays scaffolds around newly constructed high-rises in cities, Ma Hongjie with his photographs of families with their meager belongings assembled outside their soon to be abandoned houses, Mu Chen+Shao Yinong portray assembly halls in rural villages falling into disrepair, Wang Qingsong with his “Follow Me” blackboard of logos of major international corporations, Yao Lu with his beautiful classical Chinese landscapes made from waste at construction sites, or as in the works of Jin Jiangbo whose images depict abandoned production facilities which are no longer profitable. (“Never Equal Distance to the Moon”, Stiftelsen314.com)
In his work Henning Olav Espedal easily falls into a category of concerned artists discussing possible future scenarios. His sculptures have references to manmade disasters, to power stations or impending danger. In his sound-work we can vaguely register a faint whisper suggesting that our civilization is fading into oblivion. And his brick paintings, where he paints with concrete, carry references to the destruction of heritage, like the demolishing of China’s hutongs. Their traces are removed. Giving space to superstructures of our time, mastodonts of concrete, glass and steel -the ruins of the future. A future based on the concept of perpetual material growth, which in itself is unsustainable, and its inevitable consequence is suffering.
Even if one agrees that ours is a culture dominated by insensivity to pain and a loss of memory, it is also true that there is simply no laying to rest the scars of violence and the ghosts of past suffering. Espedal epitomizes Hegel’s thesis: “as long as there is an awareness of suffering among human beings there must also be art as the objective form of that awareness.” But as Viriginia Woolf wrote: “But for pain words are lacking.”
We cannot define the future, yet that is exactly what our politicians aim to do, by implementing change. China’s politicians have also changed the future. Some would say with tremendous success, but all will agree that this change has come at a price. Former Chairman of the Communist Party, Deng Xiaoping, defined China’s future with the slogan: “One change a year, one big change in three years, and one unidentifiable transformation in five years.” China’s lifting of millions of citizens from poverty to affluence is an impressive achievement in itself. The introduction of a liberal market economy, within the existing political system, has to a large extent been a success. But the unidentifiable transformation Deng speaks of involves massive structural changes to the social, economic and cultural fabric of China. In the timespan of less than a generation China has gone from bicycle to car, road to highway, hutong to high-rise, enterprise to industry and village to metropolis. An example of the scale of China’s development can be observed in such projects as the Three Rivers Dam project or in the flattening of 700 mountains in Lanzhou to build a new metropolis. So perhaps the folk tale about the old peasant Yu Gong, who decided to move two inconveniently located mountains away from blocking the entrance to his home, is true: He struggled terribly, but ultimately succeeded. Hence the Chinese idiom "Yu Gong moves the mountains."
China’s role as production hub for the world has also had consequences beyond improving the population’s living conditions; Consequences for its air, water and soil. The never ending desire for cheap labor and enterprise expansion by the West has also affected China.
The struggle to cope with progress, to foresee possible futures and find solutions, is a vital issue for China’s authorities. Some of these issues are already being addressed. Affluence increases consumption. On its current development path food, water, oil, gas, minerals, transport and energy become commodities China's population increasingly requires, and all of these resources are limited in supply. With increased affluence comes increased use of these shared resources, but also increased responsibility. The way we handle our resources, our waste and our environment eventually becomes a question of survival. It is a collective responsibility where key capitalist elements such as personal gain eventually must yield to the needs of the many.
This exhibition by Henning Olav Espedal offers an artist’s perspective on some of the choices we have made and what lies ahead.
Bjørn Inge Follevaag 2014
---
HERE / NOW (all around us) -Entropy
The following text is an attempt to contextualize my work and to lead my viewer to further interpretation, beyond the initial impression.
Entropy can shortly be described as the deterioration of a closed system over the course of time. In any closed system the chances for a development towards disorder, breakdown and chaos is infinitely higher than the opposed development. Towards a higher order- or, even the maintenance of order within the system.
This reality is my motivation for creating, among other works, a suite of paintings. The «Entropy-paintings».
Entropy as a theme have infinte variations. In the paintings this is visualised through rectangular building-blocks or «bricks». They are ordered in two states. One systematic, constructive state and one disordered, chaotic state.
All man-made constructions is destined to become ruins. The entropic process will leave them completely demolished. Nothing but dust left. The paintings depicts stylized moments of this inevitable deterioration of mass.
The theory of the big bang implies that the universe in the beginning was a place of zero entropy. All matter and all energy where compressed in a ultra-compact singular point. After the big bang, the matter and the energy spread out in all directions and the universe expanded at an enourmous rate. It have continued expanding since and the entropy have gradually increased. It will continue increasing until it brings us to a thermal equilibrium. When this happens, we are in a state of maximum entropy: The universe has now one homogenous temperature.
Energy transfers generate excess heat, a waste-product of flowing energy. When we reach maximum entropy, all possible energy in the universe have been converted to heat. At this point there is nothing left to burn.
Entropy leads us ultimately to an end (and the implicit possibility of a new beginning).
Henning Olav Espedal 21.09.2013
---
ORIGO
Del en: Konsept
”Det du ser er det du ser”
Bruce Glaser, New Nihilism or New Art?, Radio-intervju med Frank Stella, Donald Judd og Dan Flavin, Februar 1964, Gjenngitt s.197-201, Minimalism, utgitt I serien Themes and movements, Phaidon Press Limited, 2000
Mennesket søker etter forklaring og orden. Ved forklaring utledes sannhet, og orden utleder systemer. Sannheter og systemer eksisterer ikke som absolutte, begreper og former er i konstant forandring.
"For en kunstner som ønsket å utvide sin forståelse av synet i vitenskapelig retning lå altså rutenettet der som en kunnskapsmatrise. Gjennom sin abstraksjon skapte det en av kunnskapens basislover – nemlig atskillelsen av filteret vi sanser gjennom og filteret i den virkelige verden.”
Rosalind E. Krauss, Grids, Første gang trykket i tidskriftet October nr.9, 1979, Gjengitt s. 21 i tekstsamlingen Avantgardens orginalitet og andre modernistiske myter, Oversatt av Agnete Øye, Utgitt på norsk i serien Artes, Pax Forlag, 2002
Rutenettet er bygd opp av identiske kvadrater som ligger i ordnet forhold til hverandre. Prinsippet danner et nettverk, som på grunn av sin repetative, identiske struktur kan brukes til å måle rom og form. Endimensjonalitet eksisterer kun i en linje. Ved å la linjen krysses etableres todimensjonalitet i et plan, organisert matematisk, oppstår rutenettet. Ved å erstatte kvadratene med moduler beskriver rutenettet volum og oppfattes som en tredimensjonal struktur. De tre grunnformene, linje, rute og modul systematiserer vår visuelle erfaring.
Rutenettet har medført en rekke konsekvenser for billedkunsten. Perspektivets romlighet avhenger av evnen til å kunne forestille seg et rutenett projisert mot et dybdepunkt. Dette skaper illusjonen av tredimensjonalitet i et plan. Senere i det moderne maleriet ble rutenettstrukturen gradvis flatet ut mot selve billedplanet. Modernismens endepunkt ble nådd når illusjonen opphørte å eksistere i bildet, og beskrivelsen av lerretets flate karakter ble maleriets mål og innhold: det monokrome maleriet.
"Vi må et godt stykke bakover i kunsthistorien for å finne tidligere eksempler på rutenettformer. Vi må helt tilbake til fjorten- og femtenhundretallet, til avhandlinger om perspektivet og til Uccellos, Leonardos eller Dürers utsøkte studier, der perspektivlinjene er innskrevet på den avbildede verdenen som dens organiserende armatur. Men perspektivstudier er egentlig ikke tidligere eksempler på rutenett. Perspektiv var til syvende og sist det virkeliges vitenskap, ikke en måte å trekke seg tilbake fra virkeligheten på. Perspektivet var en demonstrasjon av hvordan man kunne legge virkeligheten og fremstillingen av den oppå hverandre, av hvordan det malte bildet og dets referent i virkeligheten rent faktisk sto i forbindelse med hverandre, idet det første var en form for kunnskap om den andre. Alt ved rutenettet motsetter seg denne forbindelsen, det avskjærer den alt fra begynnelsen av, til forskjell fra perspektivet kan ikke rutenettet legge romligheten i et rom eller et landskap eller en gruppe figurer over på overflaten av et maleri. Om det i det hele tatt legger noe over noe annet er det faktisk intet annet enn bildets egen overflate. Det er en overføring der ingenting skifter plass. Man kunne nesten si at overflatens fysiske egenskaper blir lagt oppå denne samme overflatens estetiske egenskaper. Og disse to planene, det fysiske og det estetiske, viser seg å være det samme planet; de er koekstensive og, gjennom rutenettets abscisser og ordinater, koordinate. Betraktet på denne måten er rutenettet i dypeste forstand en naken og determinert materialisme."
s. 10-11, Avantgardens orginalitet og andre modernistiske myter, R. Krauss
Geometriske prinsipper er tenkt og materialisert av mennesket utfra kunnskapen om organiske former. Menneskelig sansning kan deles opp i abstrakt og konkret erkjennelse. Den konkrete baserer seg på enkeltindividets subjektive sansning og våre sansers erfaring. Abstrakt erkjennelse er tankenes evne til å skille ut visse trekk og se bort fra de øvrige. Denne prosessen følger lovmessighet og forutbestemte mønstre. En figur illuderer konkret virkelighet, mens et rutenett kan sees som et utrykk for menneskets abstrakte virkelighetserkjennelse. Rutenettet eksisterer som et imaginært Grunnplan i den konkrete sanseerfaringen. Ved å føre et synlig rutenett inn i det tredimensjonale oppstår en tøyelighet. De stringente linjene vil følge organiske formers bevegelse. Det oppstår en syntese mellom geometrisk og organisk form.
"Logisk uttrykt brer rutenettet seg i alle retninger i det uendelige. Enhver grense som et gitt maleri eller en gitt skulptur påtvinger rutenettet, kan i henhold til denne logikken kun betraktes som arbitrær."
s. 25, Avantgardens orginalitet og andre modernistiske myter, R. Krauss
Et skulpturellt kunstverk er materiale og mellomrom. Materien er organisk og kan i likhet med rommet forklares matematisk. Rutenettet projiseres som et filter over figuren. En kontrast mellom figurens materialitet og rutenettets immaterialitet oppstår. Rutenettet fører figuren og rommet sammen.
Del to: Praktisk utførelse
Realiseringen av prosjektet avhenger av dialektikken mellom figuren og det optiske rutenettet:
Figuren ble modellert i leire etter levende modell. Leirens utpregete plastiske egenskaper gjør at den kan etterligne naturens materialitet. Modellens umiddelbare sanselige helhet gjør modelleringsprosessen dynamisk. All nødvendig informasjon og inspirasjon finnes i modellen.
Rutenettet er skapt digitalt. For best gjengivelse har jeg valgt å bruke en videoprosjektor med sterk lampe slik at eventuelle eksterne lyskilder blendes. Rutenettet avtegnes skarpt på figuren. Det gir en balanse mellom de organiske formenes myke lysabsorpsjon og geometrisk form, som fortoner seg klar og ren.
Figurens endelige materiale er gips. Gipsens homogene kvalitet egner seg godt for billedprojeksjon. Lyset fordeles jevnt over den hvite overflaten og spillet mellom lys og skygge forsterkes.
Posituren er symmetrisk. Siden kroppens to sider ikke eksisterer som speilbilde av hverandre, vil stillingen bidra til å fremheve legemets organiske form. Symmetri er idealet i menneskets oppfattelse av det vakre. En symmetrisk kropp eksisterer ikke. Rutenettet måler ”naturens avvik”.
Del tre: Utrykk
Figurens ekstatiske utrykk peker mot det oversanselige. Ett kjennetegn ved ekstatisk tilstand er at bevisttheten om jeget, tid og rom opphører å eksistere. Man opplever å inngå i en helhet med verdensaltet. Tilstanden kan beskrives som både innadvent og overskridende. En ekstase bunner ut i menneskets behov for å løsrive seg fra den konkrete verden. Vår materielle undergang er determinert. Derfor søker vi å skille sjel fra materie.
"Mystikken pendler mellom lidenskapen for ekstase og skrekken for det tomme rom. Man kan ikke kjenne det ene uten det andre. Begge to forutsetter en steil vilje til å gjøre sjelen til et tabula rasa, en streben mot psykologisk innholdsløshet ... Når sjelen først er moden for en varig og fruktbar tomhet, hever den seg opp til en total utslettelse. Bevisstheten utvider seg utover grensene for kosmos. Det å ribbe den for forestillinger er den grunnleggende betingelse for den ekstatiske tilstand og for opplevelsen av intethet. Man ser ikke annet enn intethet. Og den er blitt alt. Ekstase er et fullstendig nærvær uten objekt, et fullt tomrom. Den er et gys som farer gjennom intetheten, en invasjon av væren i det absolutte fravær. Tomrommet er betingelsen for ekstasen slik ekstasen er betingelsen for tomrommet."
E. M. Cioran, s 29, Tårer og hellighet, Oversatt av Bertil Knudsen og Knut E. Sparre, Utgitt i serien Cappelens upopulære skrifter, Cappelen Akademisk Forlag AS 1996
Henning Olav Espedal 2005
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