Quicksand frontier under-standing
2010
Exhibited at 'Eternal Tour', 2010 in Jerusalem and Ramallah and at 0047, Oslo, 2011, Kunsthal Nikolaj, Copenhagen and Haus am Waldsee, Berlin in 2013.
Quicksand frontier under-standing is a piece, departing from a trip to Armenia in the summer of 2009. It take on an interest in contextual structures of nationalism as well as change as a material flow.
The installation Quicksand frontier under-standing, focuses nationalism as mechanisms forming a state and the stories and shapes from which ‘belonging’ is constructed. The art work holds condensed knowledge transformed into an abstracted landscape of form. ‘Re-shape’ is used as a strategy to reflect definitions: to make them re-thinkable. The publication The Armenian Project was written out of the journey.
The installation Quicksand frontier under-standing consists of three parts. An illuminated LED-line that draws out a flexible area on the floor. The drawing changes via sensors in relation to the visitors in the space; the LED-line moves (by motors) towards and ‘fronts’ a visitor. Another piece pulls a perforated piece of paper up and down sprawling steel wires —like stiff grass— and makes a squeaking sound. It is a sculptural response to a quote by Osip Mandelstam, in the book 'Journey to Armenia': The tall steppe grasses on the lee hump of the island of Sevan were so strong, juicy, and self-confident that one felt like coiffing them with an iron comb. The third piece is two moving white perforated planes, perforated in a somewhat regular manner, by hand. The holes superimpose on each other, moving, comparing. The sculpture is a reference to the concept and practice of census.
