THE AARHUS ART BUILDING, ÅRHUS (DK) MAR 28 - APR 27 2009
www.aarhuskunstbygning.dk
text (norwegian) / list of works / images / invitation card
TRUTH OR DARE
The four artists Trond Hugo Haugen (b. 1975), Michael Johansson (b. 1975), Jonas Liveröd (b. 1974) and Henrik Lund Jørgensen (b. 1975) turn things inside out and attack our conventional understanding of how reality is stitched together. They work within radically different media types covering the field from drawing, photography and sculpture to installations in mixed - and new media. The works range from expressions that are minimal and conceptual to those that are exaggerated and almost surreal.
The exhibition is sponsored by the Nordic Culture Fund, the Danish Arts Council’s Committee for Visual Arts and the Cultural Development Foundation, the Municipality of Aarhus, Thorsen Møbler, BMS and Furrier Ole B. Christensen, Århus.
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From the catalouge:
The Princes of Serendip
By Sanne Flyvbjerg
" (...) Trond Hugo Haugen’s work In Memory Of consists of a movie theatre without images, where the sound of a symphony orchestra warming up builds up to a concert that never begins. As a member of the audience you sit in your chair and wait. And wait. The moment stands as a little pocket of time pointing back at ourselves and the things we are used to being served by the media. Among other things the work refers to John Cage’s musical piece 4’33, where the artist sits still for more than four minutes without touching his instrument. The work transforms itself and becomes the action that does not take place and the audience members’ expectations of being presented with a finished composition. In Haugen’s installation the work of art becomes a stage that emphasizes our expectations about being able to understand and bring structure to our sensorial impressions in a logic and meaningful way. (...)"
From the catalouge:
Old Remedies / New Images.
On media and materials – brushes, humour, violence and filmic expectations at the exhibition Truth or Dare.
By Lise Skytte Jakobsen
" (...)
When the Work of Art Almost Isn’t There
The baroque humour – but at the same time the almost existential and persistent occupation with the details of experienced life – can also be experienced in connection with the works of Trond Hugo Haugen, although the hallucinations in his drawings and constructions are of quite another kind. In his book Det kjedelige kunstverket (The Boring Work of Art) from 2002 it is possible to follow – in extremely simple, almost schematic (or boring!) drawings – a work of art, maybe a kind of light installation on wheels connected to a socket, that flees from its boring life and simply flies out the window, but because of its connection to the socket it brings the whole globe with it in tow.
The subtitle of the book is Eller kunstverket som kjedet seg (Or the Bored Work of Art) and initially we are encouraged to reflect on why the work of art is bored – was it forgotten or lonely? Or is all art bored? And what does the globe see when it is taken on a flight by art? Basic problematics about the conditions of art and the state of the globe are presented in a cheerful way in connection with drawings that now and then seem on the edge of ceasing to exist; fast sketches of not always transparent sequences of events or simple landscape fantasies. In keeping with this a question is asked towards the end of the book: Has the world now changed after the flight – and, not least, what about you, have you been affected by the flight?
Also the series Hundred Days of Confusion (begun in 2006) has been drawn in a raw, intuitive and direct way. The drawings take their starting point in personal incidents and in this sense they must be understood as contemplations on the course of life, but at the same time it is important to note that they send out a signal about being spontaneous and sketched in a hurry. They show a willingness to always search for something new, not getting stuck but always being willing to let oneself get carried along. For Haugen drawing is like thinking; it’s a process that leads the thoughts on their way, but the drawings in themselves are also thoughts.
This use of drawings as a fast, intuitive medium combined with a conceptual or idea-based interest in how little it takes to create a meaningful image is in keeping with Haugen’s treatment of the medium of film in the work In Memory Of. Also in this instance the focus is put on the thoughts and behaviour that the medium results in, rather than the film itself, the images on the screen.
In Memory Of consists of a miniature movie theatre where a soundtrack reveals a symphonic orchestra warming up for an approaching concert, while the audience members find their seats in the concert hall and we hear their small talk in the background. You take your seat in the movie theatre and imagine what you are to experience; how will it sound when the members of the orchestra begin to play for real, and what will you see on the screen? But 20 minutes pass … and absolutely nothing happens. After 20 minutes the soundtrack ends its loop and starts from the beginning again, and your own expectations of what this medium in this set-up would be presenting to you are the only images you bring with you from the movie theatre. Haugen brings the movie theatre and the boundaries of the filmic medium into play, but empties the architecture of the images we expect from this medium while letting the soundtrack generate the expectant inner film of the audience. Some will probably remain seated for the whole duration of the loop and discover that the expectation theme just repeats itself, while others will stick their head into the movie theatre every now and then and realize that the film still hasn’t started. (...)"
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LIST OF WORKS
1. In Memory Of, (installation, 2009)
2. Hundred Days Of Confusion (Ink on paper, 52x72 cm x15, 2006-2009)
3. Adventures In Wonderland 1-16 (Ink Print on Paper, 13´´ - 29x18,5 cm/37,5x27,5 with frame)
IMAGES / TRUTH OR DARE
