EARTH AND REVERIES OF REPOSE - REVERIES OF MATERIAL INTERIORITY, 2015
Video and photos
The project “Earth and Reveries of Repose – Reveries of Material Interiority”, exhibited at Ram Gallery in Oslo in 2015, was based on the 1948 essay “La Terre et les rêveries du repos” by French philosopher and epistemologist Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962). It consisted of a video piece and various photo series exploring ideas of interiority and the substance of matter.
The exhibition’s central piece was a 24-minute video that dwelled on aspects such as penetrating and investigating that which is hidden, inside, and the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm in microscopy and geology, colour theories related to psychology and the depth of colours and colour pigments, as well as the dichotomy between interiority and exteriority.
Reflecting fragments of Chapter 1 of Bachelard’s essay, the images of the video piece complemented a narration based on literary quotes about the element Earth by poets including Jean Paul Richter, Henri Michaux, D.H. Lawrence, Jean Cocteau, Jacques Audiberti and alchemists including Gerhard Dorn.
Also an important part of the exhibition were various photo series that captured the luminescence of different flowers and minerals, formations of colour pigments dissolving in water, as well as landscapes.
The project represented a continuation of pieces that I have been preoccupied with over the past few years, pieces that have thematically explored characteristics of the four elements, and the way poetic and lyrical reveries and imagination of the elements spark fresh associations and images in your mind – lending a glimpse into the innermost nature of matter.
