Form Matters, Matter Forms

“We may speak of the form (or the thing as having a form) as an individual thing, but we may never so speak of that which is material by itself.”
(Aristoteles, MetafisicaVII, 1035a)

APALAZZOGALLERY is pleased to invite eight Norwegian artists to produce site specific works, conceived and created for the palace hosting the exhibition,and focused on one of the main issues of aesthetics and artistic research in both classical and contemporary times: the relationship between form and matter. In which ways can a form materialize? How does form affect matter? How does matter affect form? The artists are committed to suggest different possible answers to some of the basic questions for art in general, and specifically fo contemporary art; eight parallel paths emerge, in which matter becomes form and form reveals itself into matter; eight different investigations on the ways in which a form can concretize into matter, and on the ways matter can transcend itself into a form. The polysemic title of the show suggests the multiple senses and meanings of the relation between form and matter,a necessary unit and a dialectical contrast at the same time.These eight investigations on form and matter and their dynamic relationship interweave with the rich and distinctive architecture of the XVII century palace, thus stimulating a reflection on the relationship between classic and contemporary.

In Ann Iren Buan’s (1984, born in Stjørdal, lives and works in Oslo) sculptures the massive scale counterpoints the fragility of materials. In the exhibited work, as well as for all her practice, her starting point is drawing, and particularly the study of drawing’s materiality. Her work draws inspiration from post minimalism and the relation between work, body and site. Her new sculpture engages a dialogue with the surrounding ancient frescos. Buan often re-uses fragments of earlier sculptures that are transformed in an ever renewing thematic continuity.
Marte Eknæs (1978, born in Elverum, lives and works in Berlinand Espa) will install a new work from hers eries Better Furnished, More Fortunate in the entrance area, drawing a connection between the inside and outside and the functional and formal. The artist often utilises elements and materials taken from the urban sphere. Through a conceptualization of every element of the work, she creates economical form that is still dense with meaning. She chooses materials, objects and forms for both their literal and metaphorical qualities, and forges connections between them mixing found strategies with her own sensibility. Arranged together, or in connection with the architecture of the exhibition space, the elements often vacillate between their original purpose and their new formal role.In the exhibition she will also show a new wall piece from her on going series Perpendicular Pictures and a new sculpture made from sheets of hand brushed aluminium.

In Ane Graff’s (1974, born in Bodø, lives and works inOslo) recent works ,the scientific research on natural forms open sup for tracing memory within matter. Graff’s investigation on the nature of matter is carried out through an examination of the processes of change, becoming, mutation, interaction and transformation. All these processes impress matter with the forms of memory; simultaneously materializing the material’s persistence and it’s continuous changes. Starting from an analytic approach,the abstraction within her work is the result of a process where matter itself is transformed and decayed. Graff’s textile works are printed and treated through different processes that leave traces in the modified textile and faded motives. Ane Graff’s approach to matter is inspired by feminist science scholar and quantum physicist Karen Barad’s words: “Matter is substance in its iterative, interactive becoming, not a thing, but a doing, a congealing of agency. It is morphologically active, responsive, generative, articulate and alive.” The artist presents two new textile works reflecting upon the nature of skin; raising questions of identity, categorization, permeability, and touch between materials.

Tiril Hasselknippe’s (1984, born inArendal, lives and works between Copenhagen andOslo) work is focused on the theme of possibility. Things could have been different: the form they assumeis only one of their possible forms, and it is determined by the will of the artist. In the exhibited sculptures the artist investigates inconsistency, disintegration, the possible shelter, and the impossible duration: the artist brings into questionthe creative act through afleetingand poetic work, at the same time material and immaterial, classic and contemporary. Hasselknipp epresents five new resin sculptures from the series Tub, hungat 8meters from the ceiling and floating in the space.

Johanne Hestvold’s (1988, born in Bergen, lives and works between Paris and Oslo)works departure from an idea of semantic distortion. She is exploring situations where an object takes on new symbolic value, or where meaning is non-linear. With references from art history like minimalism, she explores how the notion of essence can be turned upside down when the object, or sculpture is non-essence. This non-linear, non-essence leads away from conventional meaning and understanding of an objects presence. The sculptures become intersections within networks of content derived from materials, forms and symbols. The artist will be presenting new works continuing an ongoing investigation of mundane materials and objects.

Ane Mette Hol (1979, born in Bodø, lives and works in Oslo) uses drawing as a method for investigating the relationship between originals and reproductions. In the exhibition the artist presentsthree works where her analytic and illusionary drawing technique interacts with sound, video and sculpture. The sound piece The Concept of Clouds (That Will Never Exist) is the digital drawing of the rain. The sound of one drop is multiplied by a mathematical formula and layered till it becomes a rain shower. The sound activates an unexpected sensorial experience and is almost tangible. The pressing and increasing rhythm gives a not only conceptual form to sound: drops fall creating the image of the rain on a large invisible canvas.In the 16 mm film projection For a Length of Time #2 the artist reflects on the relationship between space, time and measure through the projection of a drawing on transparent film of 152 cm of a measure tape, a materialization of time. In Untitled (Drawing for floor #9) using various materials such as dry pastel, coloured pencil, pen, glue and paper the artist reproduces a 6 meters long drawing (paper roll), in a kind of sculptural trompe-l’oeil.

In Marianne Hurum’s (1978, born in Oslo, lives and works in Oslo) works the form corresponds to the gesture: the painting crosses over the canvas edges and expands into the building that is hosting it. Marianne Hurum works with color and composition and with painting as attitude and as a place where the contemporary sinks in and manifests itself through shape and color. Hurum’s artistic practice in painting is also based in ‘painting in the expanded field’, rephrasing the title of Rosalind Krauss Sculpture in the Expanded Field (1, which is evident in sculptural works based on the stretcher shape and in photogrammic works translating painterly dynamics to c-prints while blinded by the dark in the darkroom. The artist presents a series of six paintings.

Toril Johannessen (1978, from Harstad, lives and works in Bergen) has collected subject material within a range of academic fields, such as economy, physics, neuroscience and optics. In the exhibition she presents a series of graphs, from the on going series Words and Years, based on research in various academic journals and news magazines. Going through the complete volumes of the journals from the first issues up until today, selected words apparently incompatible to these scientific fields of research are highlighted, and the frequency of their use is mapped. In the exhibited works the impersonal language of graphic-mathematics representation goes haywire with the investigated concepts and is forced to transcend itself giving form to a series of provocative slip pings, imbalances and conceptual short circuits.