Underflate (2022)
A collaboration with KINICO Architects at SALT, Oslo
Underflate explores environmental grief through the disappearing life of the Oslofjord, where the once abundant cod has nearly vanished. In a process that moves between the industrial, macabre and intimate 200 cod skeletons, a surplus material from the fish industry has been carefully boiled, washed, rinsed, brushed, and cleaned by hand. In the middle of SALT’s intense heat a conversation arise with creatures of sorrow; conglomerates made up from over 200 cod skeletons. With the skeletons as a guide, Underflate slowly submerges us into the fjord and into sorrow.
Three sculptural assemblages inhabit SALT’s hottest sauna, their pale, articulated bodies becoming strange company. A fourth sculpture lives submerged in the Oslofjord, functioning as a temporary artificial reef. Its underwater presence is mirrored in SALT’s largest sauna through a projected video, bringing the fjord into the Sauna.
A small publication accompanied the work, with texts by marine ecologist Rebekah Oomen, author Hannah Arnesen, and psychologist Elisabeth Flo. A sauna ritual led by sauna master Markus Bruun, with scent by artist Simon Daniel Tegnander Wenzel and text by Hannah Arnesen, extended the installation into an act of collective mourning and renewal.
Reclaimed pine wood, cod skeletons, cotton string.
Process
Something that was. Something inside of us. Meat that has disappeared. Time that has passed. Remains. Cells that have built. Body and the absence of body
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Something that was. Something inside of us. Meat that has disappeared. Time that has passed. Remains. Cells that have built. Body and the absence of body *
Collaboration and support
Curated by Una Gjerde
Collaboration partner: SALT, Oslo
With scent by Simon Daniel Wenzel Tegnander
Sauna ritual in collaboration with Sauna master Markus Bruun
Research sources and experts: Rebekah Oomen (marine ecology), Elisabeth Flo (environmental psychology, mourning)
Funding: Billedkunstnernes Hjelpefond
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