SUNBATHERS II opening at 1857, Friday May 23, 2014




SUNBATHERS II


23/05 – 17/08/2014

Preview: Friday 23/05 19:00


Group show:
Ilja Karilampi, Margaret Lee, Ugo Rondinone and Santiago Taccetti
Video screening at dusk, read more.
The ancient belts of roofing felt are cooking. Sux up the sun (now, oh! so close) and are charged with heat like a bastard. Fix yr grin. (Don't grin). Put on your goggles or shades.
[Photos will look corny from this one].
— Hey! We're up here! Yes, here. Dancing.
Charleston above Bavaria, with only one woman onboard (if you're lucky – but fused with drinks inside, gentlemen also dance with each other). Gin Rickeys across the Stanovoy mountain range. Accordions and gramophones. All days, all eyes, boldly, out the portholes. The Graf Z. crossed the Atlantic in only two days (going eastward) early August 1929. And that was just the beginning. All chambers highly pregnant with hydrogen gas. Shadow so beautifully bulbous it could easily be eyeballed, sliding on the waves, 700 feet below. Within or above the clouds. White noise of cloud grease.
This is the only way to travel.
The moderate speed of the locomotive – but sailing in the breeze, above everyone else. (Below they work their days, like bugs). The scent of tandoori or fumes from the factories won't bring us down – neither factually, nor mentally. We're elevated for now, and thereby forever. All is flat from this far above. And almost too easy to reduce to imagery. Pictures with tongues. Not even moving.
Let's leave it at that. And add 6 notes to consider in case you cannot decide:

1. Playful dashes of light on the Pacific O is a kick-ass spectacle.
2. The chef has a personal pair of binoculars.
3. You are right and we are wrong. But we're also youthful enough to revel in small attentions.
4. The heavens are on fire in the distance. Not here, nor as seen from here, but seen from somewhere else: they burn, and we can go there. (They burn, the heavens, with the same exploding gas we forcefully control & contain).
5. The background is cluttered, but art is clutter anyway. Go toss your rocks in your own fucking glass house.
6. The Box is Bad. If the piece can't deal with being out of its snow, in shifting light: fuck it. Your clutter clearly isn't worth the hassle.
●●●
Do you? Do you —
Believe me.
What got me up was thinking I don't have to come down.
So,
ascend this vessel, with dignity, for once. With equilibrium. With grace. Not as a coward–rat, afraid it might crumble. It's not meant to be fallen from, but sure, it is also a stage.
Caught like a balloon, burning like a Hindenburg. With food and fuel supplied in flight, we will drift forever.
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About the artists:
Ilja Karilampi (1983, Göteborg), lives and works in Berlin & Sweden. Recent solo shows include "Jag Är", Gallery Niklas Belenius, Stockholm, "SweSh Xpress", Marbriers 4, Geneva, "President Room", CO2, Torino, & "Big Bird", Wilkinson Gallery, London, all in 2014. A panel discussion with Bladee, Hua Hsu, and Michele D´Aurizio can be read in the latest issue of Flash Art.
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Margaret Lee (b. 1980, Bronx, NY) lives and works in New York. Her work has been presented in solo and two-person exhibitions at Jack Hanley Gallery, NY (2011), Murray Guy, New York (2012 and 2013), and Off Vendome, Dusseldorf (2013), amongst others. The artist has also been included in group shows such as Looking Back/The 6th White Columns Annual at White Columns, New York (2011), New Pictures of Common Objects at MoMA/PS1 (2012), and Permutations 03.2: Re-Place at P!, New York (2013), and the 12th Biennale de Lyon (2013).
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Ugo Rondinone (b. 1964, Brunnen) lives and works in New York. His work has been shown extensively around the world, with recent solo exhibitions including the Museum Anahuacalli, Mexico City; Art Institute of Chicago; Museum Leuven, Brussels; Fatima Center for Contemporary Culture, Monterrey; Gladstone Gallery, New York; Public Art Fund, Rockefeller Plaza, New York; Almine Rech Gallery, Paris; M Museum, Leuven, Belgium; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich; Esther Schipper, Berlin.
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Santiago Taccetti (b. 1974, Buenos Aires) lives and works in Berlin. He has exhibited work in art centers and galleries such as Centre d'art Santa Monica; Centre de Cultura Contemporanea Barcelona; Istituto Italo Latinomericano in Rome; La Panaderia, Mexico City; Centro Cultural San Martin; and Centro Cultural Recoleta in Buenos Aires; as well the Baryshnicov Art Center in New York. He has participated in Proyectos Ultravioleta Residency in Guatemala in 2010; the 2011 Watermill Center Summer Residency in New York; and most recently Art Omi Residency in New York.
About 1857
1857 is an artist-run gallery occupying a former lumberyard in Grønland, downtown Oslo.
Established in 2010 by Steffen Håndlykken and Stian Eide Kluge, 1857 aims to forge connections between the Norwegian art scene and young artists abroad. It is a place to convene and converge, receive, answer and honour contemporary art in Oslo.
1857
Tøyenbekken 12
0188, Oslo
Norway
Hours:
Wednesday — Friday: 12 — 17
Saturday & Sunday: 12 — 16
Closed Monday & Tuesday
1857 is supported by Arts Council Norway