12 Aug 2009

Skien Art Society presents KryssXPunkt

KryssXPunkt

Jenny Alnaes, Grete Lis Bibalo, Jannecke Lonne Christiansen, Barbro Hernes

The four artists who represent KRYSS PUNKT have a common understanding
of photography as a tool which offers various strategies for organizing REALITY.
To create the necessary distance to the ever pressing and sometimes threatening facts of the world, they transpose this reality by ways of artistical means and change it into something manageable.
The idea of the project is based on the artists common attitude to photography as such. Namely as a tool to be used as raw-material in the process of creating the final work, without taking away its own identity. The condition for this brake of reality is found in our expectation of the authenticity of photography and its representation of something which HAS BEEN. This feeling is still to be found as traces in the works of each artist.


JENNY ALNAES `work 'ODYSSE`' (photo-collage) derives from photo-material
of her journeys to various countries and parts of the world. In confrontation with other places and cultures our senses and our awareness is challenced.
The result is a feeling of insecurity and doubt of our own identity and that of our surroundings. Everything appears as equally important or un-important, one starts to search for safe points or well known patterns.
The METROPOLE appears in her works as a melting-pot in constant flux. Diverse view-points are brought together as seen in cubism. Therefore they give an impression of being a conglomeration of fragments, all single elements seem to have the same importance – at the same time to belong to a distinct pattern. One discovers that they contain many layers. This is not only a question of diverse layers of culture but also of physical structures.The ideas are visualised by way of puncturing the collages letting light through in small light-spots which describes a pattern of streets in a particular city. In this manner one has a vision of a close-up picture and at the same time of watching the structures of civilisation in a bird perspective.
In these collages the spectator is experiencing the unknown. In trying to sort out details and putting things together in a culturel context, nearness and distance seem complementary. Alnæs offers us the magic and the experience of the encounter with the place of expectations.of culture, but also of physical structures.
In the photo-collages the spectator experiences a sensation of alienation visualised, as well as the sensation of details. In this effort to try to put things into a cultural context, we experience something which represents nearness and distance at the same time. Alnæs gives us the magic an experience of the encounter with the place of expectations.


JANNECKE LONNE CHRISTIANSENS VIDEO-WORK 'Natt og Dag' (Night and Day) consists of two video-projections, which present on the one hand a sleeping woman and on the other, something like a dream world: A girl walking with naked feet in the grass while withered roseleaves are falling. The work is interwoven with sequences of a floating misty character. The unclear misty scene seems to represent glimpses into our emergency-reserve. At the same time as Christiansen in this resent work is more filmatic than in her earlier video-works, she presents some of the pictures as atmospheric stills. The video is not narrative as such, but is cut in accordance with music of Antonio Bibalo following the rhythmic flow of the music.
The title 'Natt og Dag' refers directly to our 24 hours rhythm of sleeping and being awake, but has also a metaphoric dimension. Our dreams are constantly menaced by images of memory. The video may be understood as a visualisation of introspection resulting in loss of innocence. A state of nervous ANGST is continuously unsettling the calm and quietness of the clear day. Christiansens purpose is to present to us the vague knowledge about the real 'state of affairs' in this world. It is also about our will to absorb the daily messages of war and cruelty, and therefore about guilt. Who can be exempted from quilt? Is the one who sleeps without guilt?


GRETE LIS BIBALO creates her works by way of computer manipulation. The artist emphasises the expressions in pictures which have made impression on her - not to clarify, but rather to minimise an expression which seems too dramatic.
Her pictures contain a latent drama without being too theatrical. The form is expressive but controlled .Bibalo is searching for contained silence in the same way as can be felt in a work of music, where an interval of silence is used to hold back emotions.
It is the poetic and 'painterly' which interests Bibalo, more than the objective referential aspect. The forms undergo a digital metamorphosis, and in front of our eyes they appear as undefined organic forms. The final result is that the picture is positioned between the real and the unreal. The artist is concerned with the fact that the ugly can contain a strange beauty. The pictures are beautiful but unsettling. Is it the darkest corners of the soul, she presents to the spectator?
In the picture 'Amnesia moon' a hand is held in front of the light. The interpretation of the picture might be understood as a rejection of our notion of knowledge. The title refers to the loss of memory, and that history does not learn from its mistakes. The same events only reappear in new clothing.


BARBRO HERNES often takes inspiration from newspaper clippings. The chosen photographic material depicts crime-scenes or scenes from some conflict-ridden places somewhere around the world. The somewhat horrifying documents show events concerning death and mutilation, and when it is used in this way, it becomes a strong reminder of the fragility of life.
Barbro Hernes transforms these images and transfer them to ceramic house-forms. She is searching for clearness and simplicity when she creates the shapes of her houses, a form which in itself presents a strong symbolic value to the audience. The House has been a symbol of the safe and secure shelter, well known and dear, which gives a motherly protection, but it also symbolises the shadowy unreachable places of the human mind. These images, the abstraction of the scenes, applied onto the houses' outer walls, stand in sharp contrast to the houses' impenetrable closeness. One of the pictures form shadows from a group of people. Does this show an image of passive spectators - or do we see a threatening mob?
This way of using fragments of News-documentary creates a duality: The house-forms change character in the confrontation with the photography and become small monuments.