Kunsthall
Grenland is thrilled to welcome you to the opening of Fortune Tellers, an
exhibition featuring the four material-based artists Sofia Eliasson, Hanna
Roloff, Astrid Sleire and Emily Weiner. With the exhibition we explore how our
geology and history can be linked to various artistic practices. One of the
exhibition's focal points is the Grenland region's geological diversity, which
stretches back over a billion years. We find ourselves in an area rich in
various minerals such as sandstone, slate and limestone, key prerequisites for
settlement and industrial establishments for several hundred years. Limestone
is used today, among other things, in the production of cement, plastic,
toothpaste, paint and paper - and also has a very central supporting role
throughout the history of art. Printing techniques such as lithography, with
limestone as the base material, monumental techniques such as fresco painting
that is painted on wet lime, ancient Greek sculptures carved in limestone, and
lime compounds that are included as an ingredient in porcelain, to name a few.
Over millions of years under the right conditions, melted limestone has given
us green and red Porsgrunn marble, a young marble where you can find traces of
fossil sea animals that once swam around in tropical seas. Calcium is an element
found in everything from our skeleton to glossy magazine surfaces. The eternal evolution
and circulation of raw materials puts our own fragile history in a larger
perspective - they connect us to the stars of the galaxy and deep cosmic time.
Fortune
Tellers presents
brand new sculptures, paintings and collages that explore geological conditions
and archaeology, with several references to industrial- and art history. The
artists Sofia Eliasson and Hanna Roloff have been on an excursion to the limestone
quarry locally in Bjørntvedt, together with a geologist from Geopark UNESCO Gea
Norvegica, which is based in Porsgrunn. Their local explorations have
influenced the work in this exhibition, and local findings are put into
dialogue with a larger global discourse about climate. Astrid Sleire has worked
at 1400°, the Kunsthall’s own contemporary ceramics and
porcelain workshop, located in the factory building of Porsgrunds
Porselænsfabrik. Here, new sculptures have emerged with impulses from the
industrial landscape at Herøya, Brevik and from the Porsgrunn river's constant
movement and changing surface, drifting through the nearby landscape. Emily
Weiner draws connections to the Cumberland Mountains in Nashville, where she
often picks up fossils and ancient remains from past cultures in the landscape
rich of limestone around her. She is interested in material links between
far-reaching phenomena such as historical Greek and Roman busts - early
representations of growing empires and power - to modern designs, such as the
terrazzo, which appeared more than 500 years ago, but now trends on top of interior
designs yet again.
Emily
Weiner (b. 1981) is
concerned with Carl Gustav Jung's theory of archetypes - universal, primal
symbols and images that derive from the collective unconscious, which can be
traced in symbolic form, in dreams, myths, fairy tales and legends. According
to Jung, these unconscious ideas are passed down from generation to generation,
common to all people. In her works, Weiner mixes various symbols from the past
and present, and connects visual threads such as various archetypes and primal
images from our shared cultural history. At the same time, she refers to art
history - seen through a feminist lens. For the works in the exhibition, she
combines oil paintings with ceramic frames and plays with different imitations
of materials. Weiner holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York
City (2011).
Astrid
Sleire (b. 1961)
creates abstract sculptural landscapes in clay. The new works have been created
at Kunsthall Grenland's workshop 1400°. The forms she creates are fired and
applied with underglaze and coating, which gives a dry and rough surface in
contrast to more glazed surfaces. The ceramic works can be seen as fragments
with references to changing surroundings, something that remains unfinished or
is under development. The shapes can give associations to remains of or parts
of architecture and nature. Sleire has a master's degree in ceramics from the Bergen
Academy of Art and Design (1988). She is Associate Professor of Ceramics and
Clay at the Academy of Fine Arts - Department of Contemporary Art, at KMD in
Bergen.
Sofia
Eliasson (b. 1981)
works with what she calls fossils from the present, that geology is also about
the present and how we leave unchanging traces in the landscape on a daily
basis. Eliasson likes to collect things she finds, discarded objects and traces
from our everyday life and fixes them in casts and prints. In the exhibition,
she shows a series of sculptures with abstract map sections from the 350 km
long mining system under Brevik engraved in soapstone. The engraved stones are
also moulds for castings in recycled tin. The rare fly orchid (ophrys
insectifera), found at Bjørntvedt lime quarry in Porsgrunn has become the
subject of digital mutation. The orchid is shaped by artificial intelligence,
3d modelled and cast in reliefs from lime-based synthetic plaster. Eliasson has
an MA from Bergen University of Art and Design (2017).
Hanna
Roloff (b. 1985)
shows a series of collages entitled Fortune Teller. The work relates
formally and thematically to the folded paper fortune teller, a game for
children to predict their future with, but in Roloff's work the future
resources of the earth are at stake. Abstract photographs show limestone in
various phases, from coral reefs in the Indian Ocean to the limestone quarry in
Porsgrunn. In her work, she is particularly concerned with questions related to
the use of natural resources, and thoughts about a future that is moving
towards a warmer and more tropical climate. Roloff is educated at the
department of medium and material-based art at the Oslo Academy of Fine Arts
(2017).
The
exhibition is supported by the Arts Council Norway. Sofia Eliasson has received
support for her production from the Association of Norwegian Visual Artists and
the Norwegian Art Centres (KIR). Hanna Roloff has received support for her
production from the Arts Council Norway. Astrid Sleire has received support for
her production from the Norwegian Art Centres (KIR).
Emily Weiner, Constantine, 2022. Oil on linen in stoneware frame.
Sofia Eliasson, Voktere (Ophrys # 1-3), 2022. Relief in lime-based synthetic plaster.
Hanna Roloff, Fortune Teller, 2022. Collage, photography.
Sofia Eliasson, Borgen # 1 (blå), 2022. Kleberstein, tinn.
Astrid Sleire, Resonans, 2022. Terracotta, begetting, glaze.
Astrid Sleire, Foldet konstruksjon # 1-4, 2022. Terracotta, underglaze.
Hanna Roloff, Fortune Teller, 2022. Collage, photography.
Emily Weiner, Sappho, 2022. Oil on linen in stoneware frame.
Kunsthall Grenland exhibition view. All photos by Tor Simen Ulstein.
