Daniel Gustav Cramer Five Days Curated by Espen Johansen
Odd and ordinary narratives unveil in front of us all the time. At times these events have a lasting impact on us, but more often than not, they are soon forgotten. Through photography, text and sculpture, Berlin-based artist, Daniel Gustav Cramer works with uncovering and deconstructing narratives of places and coincidental encounters. His exhibition at Entrée is a composition of such moments from five places on five nonconsecutive days: a desert, a town, a road, a fjord and a tree.
Daniel Gustav Cramer, Five Days, installation view. All images by Bent René Synnevåg.
We met for the first time in Oslo, at the airport, before we drove to the woods on the Swedish-Norwegian border, and further into Fulufjället national park. We went looking for ‘Old Tjikko’, the world’s oldest clonal tree, with roots dating back almost 10 000 years. The tree sprung shortly after the last ice age while mammoths still walked the Earth, and managed to survive in the unhospitable plains at Fulufjället in Sweden by spouting new stems as the mother trees die.
Finally we reached the expanse of Old Tjikko to spend the following days in its vicinity. The tree is scrawny, and its tormented trunk almost resembles stone. Since it’s discovery and carbon dating, the tree has gained attention from scientists, healers and travellers. The weather was constantly changing, and during our time at the site of the tree, we saw it glisten in the sun before the sky darkened and snow began to fall. We found bear droppings next to the tree (perhaps they use it to scratch their backs).
On the way back to Norway, we spotted a large moose on the side of the road. It was about to cross, but once it saw our car, it turned and ran back into the woods. We immediately stopped and jumped out. For a moment, we could see movement between the trees.
— Espen Johansen
Daniel Gustav Cramer was born in Düsseldorf, Germany. He is based in Berlin. He studied at the Royal College of Art in London. He has exhibited in numerous places, including dOCUMENTA(13), Kassel, Kunsthaus Glarus, La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, Kunsthalle Lissabon, Kunstsaele, Berlin, CAAC Seville, etc. This year he has exhibited at grey noise in Dubai, UAE, at Verksmiõjan In Akureyri (Iceland), at Vera Cortes in Lisbon, Portugal and Sperling in Munich.
Daniel Gustav Cramer XXXVI (Bergen) (2017) Sphere, 9 cm diameter This sphere has to be stored, installed, kept in Bergen.
Daniel Gustav Cramer Moose (2017) C-print, framed, passpartout, 10.5 x 7 cm (Failed) attempt to photograph a moose crossing the street near the border between Norway and Sweden.
Daniel Gustav Cramer Old Tjikko (2017) 7 books, leather bound, on 3 iron shelves Old Tjikko is known to be one of the oldest clonal trees in the world, with an estimated age of more than 9500 years. Each book is a document of a time span taken on a three-day trip earlier this year.
Daniel Gustav Cramer Tales (Algodones Desert, Southern California, United States, December 2015)(2017) 10 C-prints, framed, each 25 x 20 cm
Daniel Gustav Cramer XXX (2017) 97 iron sticks, each 185 cm long. Index poster, 89 x this 63 cm, Documentation book. In June 2017 the iron poles were installed along the Eyjafjörður in Iceland. The sticks are 185 cm in height, the average height of an Icelandic person. The sticks were installed inside public and private houses as well as open land, including the majors office, the historical museums garden, next to the bakers oven, behind the supermarket, at the waterside, in a cave, a hotel, bedrooms, kitchens, entrances, etc.
In office: Daniel Gustav Cramer Untitled (Entrée) (2017) Screen print framed 82 x 63 cm
