SUBMERGED PORTAL

12 - 20 December 2020 // 6 - 17 January 2021
Reduced opening hours in January due to the corona epidemic.
Open Saturday and Sunday 12.00 - 16.00 or by appointment.
Contact Kunstplass for a digital walk through

Welcome to Submerged Portal, a contemporary art exhibition which is a tribute to the world’s ecosystems, and particularly the basic element sustaining us all, namely water. We are all bodies of water – and hence connected to each other across time, spaces and species. Our watery bodies are inseparable from other bodies of water, the oceans, and the global pressing ecological wounds and world’s troubled waters.

Water is life-giving, but also linked to power structures and politics. The world is experiencing frequent water crises such as droughts, fresh-water shortages, floods, contamination, construction of mega dams leading to displacement, and control over bodies of water. Inspiration for this exhibition is drawn from i.a. Astrida Neimanis’ hydrofeminism and her book ”Bodies of Water”. Hydrofeminism offers us a new approach - or portal if you will - to interpret ecological ethics and intersectionality.

Submerged Portal reflects five artists’ relationships and care for the complex ecosystems which we are all part of, local habitats and the Oslofjord:

// Kristin Bergaust is an artist, researcher and educator who takes us on an artistic research expedition in the Oslofjord.
// Elly Stormer Vadseth descends under water with jellyfish in her video Sensate Drifter(s)  just outside her doorsteps at the Nærsnes peninsula in the inner Oslofjord.
// Randi Nygård returns to a glazier in western Norway making frottages of glaziers, and in dialogue with researches layers of history emerge in the ice. 
// Artist and landscape architect Elin T. Sørensen shows us the timeless beauty of the South African perlemoen abalone shell in an artwork made in collaboration with archaeologist Petro Keene. It reminds us of time’s fluidity, where the marine snail is the ’transport vessel’ into our ancestors’ past and possible futures.
// Tanja Thorjussen’s care and respect for all creatures in the sea and nature is reflected in her drawings and works of art. Her acryliq paintings of the Thalassa - the ocean goddess- is insisting on the need for people to wake up and take action.

For more information about this exhibition and the artists, you can contact Kunstplass (vibeke @kunstplass5.no).

Download exhibition catalogue / small anthology consisting of texts, poems, art works and quotes by the artists in the exhibitions, as well as others who have been of inspiration >>HERE.

DIGITAL WALK THROUGH
If you are not able to physically visit Kunstplass, you can experience the exhibition through a digital walk. Please contact Vibeke Hermanrud and when we can make an appointment for a tour using Skype, Messenger or Zoom. In January this is only possible on Saturday and Sunday between 12.00 and 16.00.

Contact info:
Vibeke Hermanrud tel. 90116493 / vibeke@kunstplass5.no
Skype vibeke.hermanrud
Messenger/Facebook: vibeke.hermanrud

Copyright: Kunstplass]