Marte Eknæs

A continuous observation and questioning of our urban surroundings is at the core of Marte Eknæs' practice. She selects elements from private and public environments based on their formal and functional qualities, that she then combines and reconfigures mixing her own formal sensibility with the (mis)use of strategies abstracted from corporate settings. Fragments appear out of context, reconnected with other parts, isolated, repeated, enlarged and elaborated. In the arrangements she constructs, individual elements still connote their original context whilst challenging habitual perceptions and how things that make up our everyday surroundings affect us and our behaviour. In this way she makes space for alternative readings and allows us to recognise an unusual conception of beauty and wit in objects generally merely seen as the embodiment of their own purpose or simply overlooked. This exhibition shows Eknæs' development and investigation of sculpture in many forms. In addition to the sculptural objects, it consists of video, prints in different formats and drawings. These drawings, a conglomerate of contextual studies that merge fragments of plans for sculptures and documentation of existing structures, illustrate the conflation of meanings present in the three-dimensional pieces and the space between them. By combining these different degrees of abstraction Eknæs constructs a sphere that transcends accepted division of the layers of representation of reality. Ventilation tubes, plexiglas, bollards, bistro tables, anti-slip tape, photosynths, brush strip seals, display racks, slate, fireplace screens, stickers: all arranged for effect. Exhibition: Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Norway (28.01-24.03.2013).