Christopher Jonassen
Ectopia
This year's first exhibition at Rogaland Kunstsenter is part of the Inngang exhibition series, which focuses on new members of Bildende Kunstneres Forening and Norske Kunsthåndverkere in Rogaland. This year the spotlight is on the artists' studio situation through the photographs of Christopher Jonassen. The artist has visited the studios of his colleagues and taken pictures of the buildings they work in and what goes on inside the studios. All the photographs in Ectopia are from Stavanger and the surrounding area. They were taken over the past year and poetically depict how most artists work in old industrial buildings in varying states of decay. Across Norway the situation is fairly similar, as several studies indicate, both in terms of studio conditions and living conditions. Artists, and visual artists and craft artists in particular, rank at the bottom of every survey of living conditions. Perhaps that is not so surprising. The figure of the artist is often portrayed as someone slightly to the side of society, who needs a bit of adversity and hunger in order to create.
Jonassen's interest in these questions stems from his own decision to work as an artist, to be an artist; to find a place to make art, to find a place to show art, to find a place to survive as an artist. The title is drawn from medical terminology, where ectopia describes an organ with an abnormal location. Jonassen suggests that artists work on the margins of society and depend on functioning in a different way in order to exist. Why else would anyone sit in a draughty old industrial building? Why else would they work various side jobs to earn enough to pay studio rent?
The photographs have a certain atmosphere about them and are mostly taken at dusk, after the artist himself has finished work. This becomes part of the atmosphere, a consequence of Jonassen's choice to be an artist. There are no people in the images. No smiling artists standing outside the building showing off their workplace. Jonassen focuses on surfaces, on the architecture, on depicting something that is invisible to most people. He wants to look at the artist, but without showing the artist.
The exhibition is supported by Bildende Kunstneres Hjelpefond, and a publication accompanies the exhibition, designed by Nina Elisabeth Børke with a text by Haraldseth.
#gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */