Art – Black Forest Magazine

Japanese Charcoal Skulls for Metal BBQs

March 1, 2019 by Jan F. Lindsø Leave a Comment

Japanese artist Sekisadamu has specialized in making pieces of charcoal shaped as skulls. He made some of these for the Wonder Festival, which is festival for sculptors and modelers held in Chiba, Japan. According to the artist the skulls are made of 100% plant based materials.

16倍タイムラプス撮影しました。
30分以上燃焼します。 pic.twitter.com/BHkeXfa4qK
— セキサダム (@gorovodka) February 17, 2019

When he posted a picture of them on Twitter they started to go viral. Eventually he even put up a webshop to sell them, and is currently working on a full size charcoal skull. Unfortunately according to the website he won’t do international orders yet.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

May 19, 2015 by Line Evensen Leave a Comment

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is the brainchild of filmmaker and graphic designer John Koenig, who says his mission is “to harpoon, bag and tag wild sorrows then release them back into the subconscious”. Koenig aims at all those nameless feelings words – until now – has not been able to define, making this dictionary one of my favourite sites ever. When I first came across it, it struck a chord with me, making me read every definition and watch every video. Every definition is so thoughtful, and every invented word sounds real.

onism
n. the awareness of how little of the world you’ll experience. Imagine standing in front of the departures screen at an airport, flickering over with strange place names like other people’s passwords, each representing one more thing you’ll never get to see before you die—and all because, as the arrow on the map helpfully points out, you are here.

altschmerz
n. weariness with the same old issues that you’ve always had—the same boring flaws and anxieties you’ve been gnawing on for years, which leaves them soggy and tasteless and inert, with nothing interesting left to think about, nothing left to do but spit them out and wander off to the backyard, ready to dig up some fresher pain you might have buried long ago.

vemödalen
n. the frustration of photographing something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist—the same sunset, the same waterfall, the same curve of a hip, the same closeup of an eye—which can turn a unique subject into something hollow and pulpy and cheap, like a mass-produced piece of furniture you happen to have assembled yourself.

moledro n. a feeling of resonant connection with an author or artist you’ll never meet, who may have lived centuries ago and thousands of miles away but can still get inside your head and leave behind morsels of their experience, like the little piles of stones left by hikers that mark a hidden path through unfamiliar territory.

You can find The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows here. They also have a Facebook page.

Marina Abramović – Entering the Other Side

July 7, 2014 by Line Evensen Leave a Comment

My friend, do your wounds hurt?
If they don’t, they would not be called wounds.
~ Traditional serbian folksong.

Portrait of Marina Abramovic | © Knut Bry and Ekebergeparken Oslo, 2013

When we heard that The Kistefos Museum were to host Marina Abramović’s first solo exhibition i Scandinavia, we knew we had to visit. We are after all proud co-founders of the Marina Abramović Institute in New York. Never been to Kistefos before, we were not sure what to expect, but when the first sight to greet us was an Elmgreen & Dragseth installation, we knew we would appreciate our stay. The large outdoor park is filled with contemporary sculptural art and installations, and so is the river besides the old wood pulp mill.

Abramović’s exhibition is called Entering the Other Side, and came to place when she visited The Kistefos Museum last year. Inspired by the hard lives of the workers at the mill, and relating it to her own childhood in former Yugoslavia, she created a sound installation specially for Kistefos with the themes life and death. It can be heard in every corner of the old, industrial mill, as if the walls were chanting.

The Kistefos Museum | Photo: Jan F. Lindsø, Black Forest Magazine

The Kistefos Museum, the Art Hall | Photo: Jan F. Lindsø, Black Forest Magazine

Walking through this retrospective exhibition, which contains some of Marina’s most famous works presented on video installations, photographs and sound, we really see how she have circled around the themes life, death and sexuality through her 40 year long career.

If you’re a fan, you have probably seen most of the artwork presented, but for those who are new to this fantastic artist, Entering the Other Side is a great way to get to know her work. Actually, most of the time she IS her work, presenting her mind, body and history to us, reminding us what it means to be human.

Entering the Other Side presents photographs of Lips of Thomas (1975) – a performance where Abramović drove her body and mind to the extreme, depicting the Yugoslavian people’s pain

We also got to see one of our personal favourites, The Balkan Baroque (1997). After the brutal war and ethnic cleansing on Balkan back in the early 1990’s, Marina drove it even further in depicting the pain of her people at the Venice Biennale in 1997. For five days she sat on a mountain of 1500 ox bones, washing them clean with a metal brush, continuously singing sad folk songs from her childhood.

Balkan Baroque II (1997) Chromogenic print presented at Entering the Other Side | © Marina Abramovic

Some other of our favourites were also presented; Nude with Skeleton (2005), Carrying the Skeleton (2008) and Cleaning the Mirror I (1995). Being a magazine for ‘art in its blackest form’ we surely love how Marina uses skulls and skeletons as a powerful symbol in her work. In the first mentioned of her works, which is a performance, she is literally embracing death in a video. The only sound in the room is her calm breathing. In the second mentioned work, she is carrying the skeleton. Maybe it is a burden, but still we are fascinated by Marina’s ability to accept death as a companion in life. In Cleaning the Mirror I we sit in silence watching a video of her performance, which involves metodically cleaning a dirty skeleton – for 3 hours.

Cleaning the Mirror I (1995) video installation presented at Entering the Other side | Photo: Jan F. Lindsø, Black Forest Magazine

Marinas (in)famous screaming perfomances were also presented, both alone and with her ex-boyfriend and artist Ulay. One of the things we were really excited about, was to finally see the result of a big Norwegian performance Marina did last summer in Oslo. She and her film team gathered almost 300 citizens in Ekebergparken, Oslo, at the excact point we believe is Edvard Munch’s view when he felt Skrik/The Scream (1893). Then Marina thaught the participants to find their own scream, which is probably quite challenging, since we Norwegians are a tad quiet and modest people. But the result was emotional and really interesting. Old ones and your ones, women and men, artists and the girl next door. All presenting us with their scream. Wow.

AAA-AAA (1978) video installation presented at Entering the Other Side | Photo: Jan F. Lindsø, Black Forest Magazine

The Scream (2013/14) video installation presented at Entering the Other Side | Photo: Jan F. Lindsø, Black Forest Mag

We highly recommend you to visit The Kistefos Museum in Jevnaker, Norway and their Marina Abramović exhibition Entering the Other Side this season. They’re open until October, and it is such a beautiful place hidden away on the Norwegian countryside, about one hour drive from Oslo.

Carrying the Skeleton (2008) C- Print, Courtesy Marina Abramovic and Sean Kelly Gallery New York

Elmgreen & Dragset – Biography

June 8, 2014 by Jan F. Lindsø Leave a Comment

Being a huge fan of the Berlin-based artists Elmgreen & Dragset, we were simply thrilled when we found out that the Danish/Norwegian art duo were holding their exhibition ‘Biography‘ at Astrup Fearnley. It’s actually their first one in Oslo, Norway. If you’re not familiar with their previous works of art, you should definitely check them out. They have collaborated since 1995, and are famous for their works like ‘Short Cut‘ (1996) and for placing a replica of a Prada store in the desert of Texas with their work ‘Prada Marfa‘ (2005). They have even designed the ‘Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism‘, that was opened in Berlin in 2008. These are only few of their works, and there are plenty more which has been shown in their many exhibitions around the world. What is so amazing with their art, is that their works tells stories – strange, bizarre and surreal. Somehow their art is lifeless in a life-like way.

Crash…Boom…Bang! (2008)
© Elmgreen & Dragset
Photo: Jan F. Lindsø

Already on the way to the museum, you can spot a scarecrow on the roof, which actually is a piece of the exhibition and entitled ‘Civilised’ (2012). As you enter the front door, you meet another artwork, ‘Crash…Boom…Bang!’ (2008), which depicts some boxes containing artwork of famous artists such as Koons and Hirst. Inside the museum we were greeted by a nice lady that told us that we could leave our belongings in the locker room downstairs. Little did we know, that we were already inside the exhibition. As we entered the locker room we suddenly found that we were inside a wardrobe of a gay sauna called ‘Amigos’ (2011).

Landslide (2002)
© Elmgreen & Dragset
Photo: Jan F. Lindsø

We went upstairs to ground floor again, and entered a nightclub called ‘The Mirror’ (2008). This was actually used for the opening party for the exhibition, and it hadn’t been cleaned since. Therefore the room gives you a ‘the day after’-vibe with empty leftover beer bottles, ash trays, stains, broken glass and with the stereo still playing. A big disco ball lying on the floor, leaving us wondering what happened last night. The song on the stereo is called ‘Too late’ (2014) and was actually composed for this special occasion. We went further into the exhibition and found a heap of trash, with a garbage bin turned atop of it, in the artwork ‘Landslide’ (2002). A comment on the consumerism of todays human society?

Close to it, there’s a pool with a floating body in it. This piece is called ‘Death of a Collector’ (2009), which also featured in their exhibition ‘The Collectors’ at the 2009’s Venice Biennale. As we’re looking at this art piece, a woman walks by only wearing a bathing suit, obviously one of the performance works of the exhibition. In a way you feel uncomfortable on her behalf, which probably is the intention from the artists. Is this a criticism towards the conformity and high culture associated with the world of art?

At the end of the first floor, there’s a stereotype waiting room with a broken queuing system, some chairs, a dying palm tree and a door with a queue counter blinking ‘0000’. The door has a crack in it, and you will obviously be waiting here for a long time. The piece is called ‘It’s The Small Things in Life That Really Matter, Blah, Blah, Blah’ (2006) and might be a look on the bureaucracy of society.

Death of a Collector (2009)
© Elmgreen & Dragset
Photo: Jan F. Lindsø

Upstairs there’s a man painting the walls white over and over again, without any specific reason. A comment Elmgreen had on this art piece was that it was ‘…a bit embarrassing that Astrup Fearnley didn’t finish the exhibition in time’. Therefore the painter had to do endless Sisyphus work without results. On the other wall there are hanging identical pieces of framed white canvases, named after the worlds most famous museums (like Guggenheim). When we took a closer look, the white color was all in different shades. Turns out Elmgreen and Dragset with the help of conservators had removed a square of the white painting found on the different museum walls, turning them into pieces of art.

The exhibition has been commented as melancholic, and with a sense of destruction. I felt that the exhibition also in a way expressed a longing and a hopeless state. I haven’t commented everything from the exhibition in this article, so you should really go and see for yourself. All I can say, is that the art of Elmgreen & Dragset is very diverse, and truly amazing!

You can visit the exhibition ‘Biography’ at Astrup Fearnley in Oslo until August 24th, 2014!

: Civilised (2012) © Elmgreen & DragsetPhoto: Jan F. Lindsø

: Crash…Boom…Bang! (2008) © Elmgreen & DragsetPhoto: Jan F. Lindsø

Nothing is Something – The gravitational art of Jólan Van Der Wiel

March 29, 2014 by Jan F. Lindsø Leave a Comment

When we discovered the art of Jólan Van Der Wiel from Amsterdam in the Netherlands, we were simply amazed. His combination of art and science isn’t just fascinating, but even beautiful handcrafting. As his work tool, Jólan uses the gravitational force to create his art pieces.

In our fascination, we had to contact Jólan to learn more about his work. First of all we wanted to know where he got the ideas for his art:

– Departing from the idea that everything is influenced by gravity, a force with a strongly shaping effect, I intended to manipulate this natural phenomenon by exploiting its own power: magnetism.
My research was titled ‘Nothing is Something’. The aim was to explore and visualize what was always already there, but invisible to the human eye. In search of a means of visualization gravitation caught my attention; as an invisible but omnipresent power, gravity offers the possibility to manifest itself visually within the realm of the material. From the beginning of the project, I intended to take a step back and let the natural phenomenon itself determine the final shape of the object. My role as a designer should be nothing but a supporting one, determining only the conditions under which the object could take shape.

Until now we have only seen his method being used to create furniture-sized objects only, but we can’t help imagine larger scale sculptures being made. Jólan even confirms that this is something he’s already working on:

– My goal is to bring my techniques into many disciplines, we are working on architectural pieces right now.

We can’t wait to see what he comes up with next, and if you’re around Milano next week, Jólan can reveal that he will be there with a new project. For more information about his work and upcoming events, visit his website at jolanvanderwiel.com.

See a video of the making process: