20.04 – 06.05.2018:
TAG TEAM + HARBINGER:
Klara Sofie Ludvigsen & Claudia Hausfeld
Black is light
Opening: Friday 20. April, at 6pm – 9pm
Presentation by Harbinger: Sunday 22. April, at 1pm
In spring 2017, Tag Team Studio invited Harbinger Project Space to a collaboration, in context of the B-Open project ‘Norden til Bergen’. Together, Tag Team and Harbinger have curated a duo exhibition with two artists, both working with analogue photography: Klara Sofie Ludvigsen (Bergen) and Claudia Hausfeld (Reykjavik). The first of two exhibitions by Ludvigsen and Hausfeld will open during B-Open 2018. The second one will open on June 2nd, in Reykjavik.
Photographs behind glass do not smell of chemicals. Some of us can detect it nevertheless; a dry and sharp odour. The smell brings with it a red darkness. In it, windows of white light occur – light is black. Black is light. What is heard are mechanical clicks and ticking and the sound of plastic trays dunking against the sink. Agitated liquids carefully sloshing and the fuzzy, static noise of running water. The photo paper is smooth in the chemical baths. The metal clamp scratches against its wet, slippery surface. The paper dries in stiff waves.
For Klara Sofie Ludvigsen and Claudia Hausfeld, the photograph alternates between being image and object. This alternation is implicit in the analogue photo process, where the image is transmitted through light, from one physical material to another. But it also takes place after the image is finished. This is especially evident in Hausfeld’s pictures. In several of them, the photographic print itself acts as the motif, placed together with other objects from the physical world surrounding us. This way, Hausfeld emphasizes the shift between two- and three-dimensionality, which is continuously taking place in the photograph, both in the production and the experience of it.
The analogue processing of a photograph is hands-on and sometimes physically demanding, while at the same time the negatives and photo paper must always be protected from touch. The photographer is revealed through fingerprints, scratches and dust. But neither Ludvigsen nor Hausfeld seem to want to hide their presence in the images, quite the opposite: both of them openly interfere with the photographic material. Most often, this interference takes place in the darkroom. By controlling the white light from the enlarger using masks and filters, they build onto the image projected from the negative.
These interventions sometimes adjust to and sometimes disturb the original image. For example, in some of Ludvigsen’s photographs of majestic landscapes, we see banks of fog mixed with painted strokes or drawn lines, effects that both enhance the qualities of the fog and further camouflage the landscape behind it. Ludvigsen in particular wants to disestablish the notion that a photograph is something one can recognize and understand at first glance. Like a vehicle lowering it’s pace when passing though heavy fog, we as an audience of Black is light will have to slow down and sharpen our gaze, when encountering these photographs.
Klara Sofie Ludvigsen (b.1983) graduated with a BA (Hons) from the Kent Institute of Art and Design in England in 2006, with exchange studies at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona. She works within the field of photography, focusing on analogue processes mainly. In her latest work she deals with how form can claim more space in the photographic language. Klara Sofie Ludvigsen lives and works in Bergen where she is a member of the studio collective BLOKK and co-founder of the darkroom collective Mørkerommet.
Claudia Hausfeld (b. 1980) works primarily with the deconstruction of the photographic image, creating spaces that play with the reliability of the visual. Questions about the representation of what is visible are translated into objects and text works, combining sculpture, images and sound. Claudia was born in Berlin and lived in Switzerland and Denmark before moving to Iceland in 2010. She studied photography at the Zürich University of the Arts and received a BA from the Icelandic Art Academy in 2012. Hausfeld currently lives and works in Reykjavik, where she co-manages the photography workshop at the Iceland Art Academy and serves as a member of the board of Nýló, the Living Art Museum.
Harbinger Project Space, in operation since June 14th, 2014, is an artist-run project space founded by Steinunn Önnudóttir and Kjartan Friðriksson. Harbinger concentrates on hosting solo and duo exhibitions by visual artists, as well as single events by larger groups. The operation does not adhere to a specific niche or limit itself to a certain age-group, but aims to be a common ground between diverse groups, to constitute connections between individuals and simultaneously gain an audience from a wide array.
Black is light is curated by Cecilie Størkson (Tag Team Studio) and Steinunn Önnudóttir (Harbinger Project Space).
The collaboration between Tag Team and Harbinger is a result of the B-Open initiative Norden to Bergen. B-Open has supported the project, with funding from Sparebanken Vest and Arts Council Norway. Art Council Norway has also supported Tag Team and Harbinger’s project directly. In addition the collaboration has received support from City of Reykjavík. Thank you!
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