Six Ghosts Spell Unknown Alphabet
This summer, the entire gallery is dedicated to the group exhibition "Six Ghosts Spell Unknown Alphabet", an international collaborative project between six artists.
"All six of us have graduated with a Master's degree in visual arts from various art academies over the past seven years. All six work somewhere between drawing and installation. Many of us work with other media as well. We have all designed and installed in different collaborations, all of us with some of us, but none of us with all of us. Some of us have never met.
The title of this exhibition, "Six Ghosts Spell Unknown Alphabet", comes from the first sentence of a "cadavre exquis" also called board drawing, which was played between Cathrine Dahl and Jim Holyoak during a two-month work stay at the Nordic Artists' Center Dale, summer 2012 Inadvertently, it describes coincidences and lost individuality in a collaboration, as well as drawing as a common but unspoken language.
We are fascinated by collaboration because of the detours and twists that are thrown into individual patterns in an art production, the unexpected detours that occur and the visual documentation of relationships - the blurred joints between art and life.
Our drawings can be compared to music; how musicians improvise and harmonize instruments by playing the same song, or by making a cacophony. A conversation. An argument. A trans-continental storytelling.
The elements of "Six Ghost Spell Unknown Alphabet" are paper-based drawings and prints installed in a spatial way. The exhibition is a hybrid between a group exhibition and a collaborative project where all the artists have made drawings with each other, sent by post, between Dale in Sogn og Fjordane, Trondheim, The Hague, Salt Spring Island, Montreal, Toronto, Hønefoss and Berlin. Individual drawings of all sizes hang over, under and into each other, meet and separate, crawling like moss up the walls. Arranged in a distinctive sequence, they spell our common but unknown alphabet. ”
The exhibition is supported by the Norwegian Cultural Council.
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The entire gallery of Tegnerforbundet is devoted this summer to the exhibition Six Ghosts Spell Unknown Alphabet, a cooperative project between six artists.
We are six artists from Norway and Canada: Jim Holyoak and Matt Shane (Montreal), Cathrine Dahl and Ørjan Aas (Trondheim), Ola Jonsrud (Oslo) and Gowara Minsa (Berlin / Bergen).
The six of us have all graduated from MFA programs at various art academies within the last seven years. All six of us work between drawing and installation. Many of us work in other media as well. We have all drawn and installed collaboratively, all of us with some of us, but none of us with all of us. Some of us have never met.
The title for this exhibition, Six ghosts spell unknown alphabet, originated from the first sentence of a game of 'Cadavre exquis' played between Catherine Dahl and Jim Holyoak during a residency at the Nordic Artists' Center Dale, in Norway. The sentence inadvertently describes the role of chance and lost individuality in collaborative creation, as well as drawing as a common but non-spoken language.
We are intrigued by collaboration because of the unexpected detours and perversions it throws into individual patterns of art making. Collaborative drawing becomes a visual documentation of relationships and conditions, blurring of the seams between art and life.
Our ways of drawing parallel music; how musicians improvise and harmonize to play the same song, or to create cacophony. A conversation. An argument. A trans-continental storytelling.
The main elements of Six ghosts spell unknown alphabet are paper-based drawings and prints, installed in a spatial manner. The exhibition is a hybrid between a group show and a collaborative project, in which all the artists made drawings with each other, sent by mail, between Dale in Sunnfjord, Trondheim, The Hague, Salt Spring Island, Montréal, Toronto, Hønefoss and Berlin . Drawings of all scales move over, under and into one another, meeting and separating, crawling up the walls. Added up in yet untold sequence, they spell our shared, but unknown alphabet. ”
The exhibition is supported by Kulturrådet Arts Council of Norway.
