ELLEN RINGSTAD

Site-specific, performative and interactive installation.

Materials: Slide projector showing no images (directed outwards through dirty window) on pidestall and layers of found, untreated plywood, hanging painting (latex, ashes, strips), heliotherapy lamp (white light) on shelf; painting (latex, ashes) mounted in window of a recovered one-man sauna, computer, projector, staircase, text on wall (masking tape, acrylic and ashes), glass bottle with ashes and water.  

From the group show 'Limen', December 2011 (i). 
 

Since the beginning of my artistic career I've observed and dealt with the dirty politics of white-cube groups shows, especially that which relates to the allocation of available space. The "best spots" (often the most obvious) are quickly proprietised by the loudest and least flexible voices. Humbleness will grant the civil artist merely space crumbs, unless he/she/they take advantage of that which is deemed invaluable to others. Conflict-shy participants may benefit from re-thinking their artistic aphorism to embrace the alchemical and unpredictable transformation of neglected liminal spaces and materials. 

In the group show Limen, whilst the other artists make use of the main space of the artist-run gallery space Premiss, I have occupied Premiss' 'non-spaces': the hallways, the windows, and the used one-man sauna left behind by its previous owners. 

Upon entering the hallway, reads: "Whiteout (n.) [wait-out] is a mental condition arising from excessive exposure to white spaces (...)". On the shelf rests a bottle; its contents: water and ash = lye. PS: drinking lye is not recommended to those of you whose life is worth living. As the solid pieces in the dirty solution will settle on the bottom, perhaps (or perhaps not) reminding the viewer of the sands of time in an hourglass (a symbol used, for instance, on pirate flags to strike fear into the hearts of their victims: memento mori - time will run out for every human). From the ceiling hangs an Eva Hesse-looking semi-transparent painting made of latex and ashes. This combination of material produces a pugnant fish-like or decaying flesh smell. The painting is lit/backlit (depending on your viewpoint) by a heliotherapy lamp, often used in the Nordic countries to help against winter-depressions. A grey character flips through empty slides on a slide projector, illuminating a squared spot of dirt on the window glass, transforming the glass from something to look through to something to look at in rythmic morse-like intervals. The light signals can be seen from far, far away. Next to to the main venue stands a fully functional one-man sauna where the visitor can regain some heat in the otherwise unheated Premiss. Once upon a time a martial arts' center, its sauna was probably used to loose a few extra pounds before a fight. Inside it the visitor may sit down and sense (observe/smell/touch) yet another latex and ash-painting, until the stench and temperature becomes unbearable. 

The sauna, measuring approximately 1x1x2m, was soon after Limen to become my  curatorial poject-within- the-curatorial-project Premiss by Rasmus Hungnes and Tarald Wassvik. The second Sauna-artist to exhibit here was Eric Wangel. His video loop was screened through my latex-painting (see video below):