Record of a Sneeze
24th of February to 1st of March - 2025
BO - Billedkunstnerne i Oslo
‘Lavine’, 244 x 320,5/324 cm, Gouache, acrylic, alcohol-based ink, ink, ceramic beads, collage on wood. 2025.
Record of a Sneeze lingers in a space that holds both presence and absence. Materializing through large and small scale paintings; a site-specific installation across two rooms that interacts with the windows of BO, the work inhabits a necessary uncertainty, doubt and reflections on personal experiences with social-phobia, and it invites a hallucinatory crowd into the space as permanent guests.
The exhibition takes its title from the 1894 black-and-white film by William Dickinson, considered the first copyrighted motion picture. Capturing Fred Ott sneezing after a bump of snuff, it unintentionally became a historical document. In that unguarded moment, like all sneezes, he is caught in an almost reluctant bliss, an image still available for scrutiny 131 years later.
Record of a Sneeze interacts with both the idea of the accidental glory of this film and the uncontrollable force of a sneeze, violent, momentary, and nearly impossible to suppress. An impulse vanishing before it fully manifests. Imagine a sneeze punctuating the timeline.
The exhibition was kindly and generously supported by Den Hielmstierne-Rosencroneske Stiftelse and Grosserer L. F. Foghts Fond.
Felt (I), 234,5 x 243,5 cm, Leather Dye, Stickers, Pigments, Gouache, Cotton, Polyester Mesh, Found Objects, Rabbit-skin Glue, Graphite Powder, Leather Dye, Plastic Pearls, Woodglue, Acrylic, Drawings, Collage on Paper/Textile 2023-25 (Artist Frame). photo credit: Thando Sikawuti
Felt (II), 231 x 191,5 cm, Leather Dye, Pigments, Stickers, Gouache, Cotton, Polyester Mesh, Found Objects, Rabbit-skin Glue, Graphite Powder, Leather Dye, Woodglue, Acrylic, Drawings, Collage on Paper/Textile. 2023-25. (Artist Frame)
photo credit: Thando Sikawuti
photo credit: Thando Sikawuti
First Drawing, 32 x 24 cm, Molotow & Posca Markers on Paper. 2010.
Photo credit: Adrian Bugge (Unless otherwise mentioned)