Welcome to the opening on Saturday August 23, 3 - 5 pm.
Torbjørn Rødland’s photographs exist as ceaseless investigations and provocations. Since the mid 1990s, Rødland, a self described ‘image-maker’, has put forth a distinctive photographic oeuvre that pushes the boundaries of aesthetic expectations and social norms. His approach ranges from highly stylized to realistic portrayals of people, landscapes, still lifes and sundry mundane activities. But in Rødland’s hands, seemingly everyday objects morph into uncanny situations.
Although highly constructed, there is an inherent truth represented in Rødland’s photographs and installations. Sensuous, rich and riveting, the artworks contain a form of symbolism without peddling obvious interpretations or conceptual agendas. The rich legacy of the photographic medium is highly visible, but the artist makes no direct art historical references or didactic punchlines. The experience of looking is fully immersive. At the same time humorously approachable and lacerating critical, and always wholly direct, Rødland’s photographs survey the full range of emotional possibilities contained in the photographic medium and push against our own previously unrecognized restraints and expectations.
The exhibition is the ONS exhibition 2014. ONS is a world leading event for the international energy industry and comprises an exhibition, conference and festival. For each ONS, a special artist is selected to hold an exhibition to add a cultural touch for the visitors.
Installation photos: Christopher Jonassen. Courtesy Kunsthall Stavanger.
b. 1970
Rødland (b. 1970 in Stavanger, NO) studied photography at the Bergen National Academy of the Arts and his work has since been exhibited in some of the world’s leading art museums and galleries. He was included in the main exhibition of the Venice Biennale of 1999 and the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo arranged a retrospective exhibition of his work in 2003. Rødland's work is in the public collections of the Stavanger Art Museum, Fonds National d’Art Contemporain (Paris), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Whitney Museum of American Art (New York). Torbjørn Rødland currently lives and works in Los Angeles and Oslo.
