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Tittel: "301 stories"  
Material: Found and collected objects
Size:  4 m x 3 m
Heidi Rognksog Mella and Mona Eckhoff Sørmo Berlin 2015

Detail
Tittel: "301 stories"  
Material: Found and collected objects
Size:  4 m x 3 m
Heidi Rognksog Mella and Mona Eckhoff Sørmo Berlin 2015

Tittel: "Look to the right of the kitchen cabinet in the third drawer where the ause is plased, there you will find the other..""  
Material: Found pieces of furniture and interior assembled as a wall,
 
kitchen clock.

Sound: a kitchen clock are placed behind the wall and makes sound
Size:  2.30 mx 2.20 m
Heidi Rognksog Mella and Mona Eckhoff Sørmo Berlin 2015

SENTRAL PERIFERI / SAMVIRKE

Heidi Rognskog / Mona Eckhoff

 

Texst. Aage Langhelle - Prinz-georg.


Opening: June 5 th. 2015, 8 – 10 PM

Exhibition period: June. 6 - 12. 2015

Address: Prinz-Georg-Straße 9, D-10827 Berlin

Website: www.prinz-georg.com

 

SAMVIRKE

Heidi Rognskog and Mona Eckhoff

 

By the installation titled "Look for it at the chamber-attic in the large dresser right next to the green closet in the middle drawer under the fishhook box ... there ... ", the artists want to tell a story about houses, rooms, moving and most of all about memory. From the beginning of their collective work they used the techniques of collage and assemblage of found objects and materials. Objects someone got rid of either because they were not useful anymore or had been expired; objects, that should be deleted from memory to be replaced by the applicable standards of some new time. The installation refers to the women’s practice at the resident fishing village at midwinter when the storms were raging most violently out on the sea and the men were out fishing for months at a time.

 

In their art practice they reflect on their family roots at Veiholmen, but also draw experience from completely different sources as art education and urban life at Czechia, Bergen or Düsseldorf. Rognskog and Eckhoff are currently living in Oslo, running the Samvirke guest studio and gallery at Veiholmen periodically. They are curators of the triennial Nordic art project RASK (filth). Together with other artists they are travelling to small fishing communities in the Nordic countries to work there for a period. By lectures and exhibitions they try to explore the potential meaning of contemporary art for small and marginalized communities.

 

 

 

ABOUT THE COLLABORATIVE EXHIBITION - SENTRAL PERIFERI / SAMVIRKE
 

The exhibition resumes the collaboration of the artists Seifried / Ravenstein from Germany and Rognskog / Eckhoff from Norway, based on a work exchange at the fishing village of Veiholmen on the northwestern coast of Norway.

 

Common feature of the four artists’ practice within this project is the use of thrown away material from the fishing village. Seifried / Ravenstein have collected wooden planks and boards that have been lying outside and around the houses for years. Rogsnkog / Eckhoff have made use of sorted out furniture and objects from inside the houses.

Looking close the way of working and the processing of the material are diametrically opposed. In Seifried / Ravenstein's work "Sentral Periferi", on display as photographic documentation, the material is strictly processed, cut to a calculated, precise construction. In Rognskog / Eckhoffs works the joints seem to be structured more randomly within a spatial frame defined by walls.
 

In the sculpture of Seifried / Ravenstein the relationship between nature and culture becomes evident in the form of a rigid manmade structure build of decomposed organic material. It recalls Sol Levitt conceptual minimalism, but from the utmost distance: after the artists' temporary restructuring of the material, the sculpture has again been released to nature’s influence at the western cape of the Island.

The intention of Rognskog / Eckhoff is to put their installation into a feminist tradition with references to quilts and crafts, work that has been considered through the years to lay within the women's domains. This is enhanced by the sound of a sewing machine that runs monotonously and steadily in the gallery space.
 

By reusing everyday materials and objects, the works place themselves into a long tradition from Assemblage to Arte Povera (Poor Art) - art forms that occurred during the 50s and 60s, and which made use of worthless objects and everyday materials. This hoping to undermine the institutional art practice which tended to have a tradition of exalting art. In the current situation with major environmental problems, one can see the artists' practice of reuse as a value choice and political stance: reduced consumption in order to promote sustainable development.

Recycling and up-cycling have been practiced on Veiholmen long before those terms had the significance they have today.

Tittel: "Look for it at the chamber-attic in the large dresser right next to the green closet in the middle drawer under the fishhook box ... there ... "  
Material: Found pieces of furniture and interior assembled as a wall.
Size:  1,0 m x 1,20 m
Heidi Rognksog Mella and Mona Eckhoff Sørmo Berlin 2015

Tittel: "Look for it at the chamber-attic in the large dresser right next to the green closet in the middle drawer under the fishhook box ... there ... "  
Material: Found pieces of furniture and interior assembled, sewing-machine.

Sound: a sewing machine are placed behind the wall and makes sound
Size:  2.50 m x 2.50 m
Heidi Rognksog Mella and Mona Eckhoff Sørmo Berlin 2015

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