Past exhibitions

2003

BJÖRN OLSSON (Sweden)
"Lingering light"

2008-09-12 − 2008-10-05

Opening Friday September 12th, 18-21

Artist talk at 19.00

In Björn Olssons work, our relationships to time and the immediate environment are explored, utilizing an almost scientific attitude. Using photography and video as his main media, Björn Olsson depicts movement within the passage of time and the landscape which we constantly inhabit but may not notice. He makes the general personal, registers and displays the individual’s subjective experience of life.

In Björn Olssons art every second and every movement is steeped in value, providing a reminder of how time is constantly passing us by. He shows simultaneously how the cyclical progression of the clock and of nature can supply us with stability and a sense of security.

At 300m3 three works are presented, all of which in different ways examine that element in our existence which forces us to stop short and go beyond our spatial and temporal limitations. The sequence of images entitled Sun Observations (2008) includes three series each containing eight photographs taken at three separate locations on the island of Hven in Öresund. The observations span sunrise to sunrise and are based on the sun being in the center of each composition. Each photograph was taken at a 45 degree angle, which allows the combined 8 images in each series to present a 360 degree observation of the sun, based on the earth’s rotation round its own axis. The connection to Tycho Brahe and his astronomical observations is evident in the work, as is the artist’s own presence.

This presence is also apparent in the work Sekunderna (The Seconds) in which, during a whole year starting on the 6th of July 2004, at Pålsjö forest in Helsingborg, Björn Olsson measured the light every day at 18.30 using an analogue, still-photography camera. The images have since become a 40min film showing subtle changes and alterations in nature, how a place is continuously altering its appearance. Sekunderna (The Seconds) incorporates both objective, scientific investigation and subjective experience. Using a physical positioning of the body within nature, Björn Olsson attempts a comprehensive view of the shifting transience of light as the earth revolves over a year.

Neum (2008) is even more detailed in its depiction of a specific process, which through an assortment of layers develops into a projection. The projection; an illuminated shape slowly pulsating like a transparent stamen, passes over a net hung in front of a black background forming the projected surface through which bees are moving in every direction. As if part of a continual emission, the bees circulate in a slow formation around the opening, covering the projected surface. The sounds emitted by the bees have been translated into tones which makes the space into a cohesive unit of sight and sound, creating an inexplicable, suggestive ambiance.

Text by

Karin Westeman

www.bjornotto.com

Med sin konsekventa inriktning och höga nivå hör 300m3 till Göteborgs viktigaste konstinstitutioner.
Säsongen öppnar starkt med Björn Olsson som i Sekunderna har fogat samman ett helt års dagliga stillbildsexponerande från exakt samma punkt i Pålsjöskogen utanför Helsingborg – tagna vid exakt samma tidpunkt på dygnet, 18.30 – till en storslagen
projicerad loop med ytterst långsamma förändringar.
Det är till att börja med monoton men snart hypnotisk detalj- och ljusstudie som kombinerar det sakliga och vetenskapligt metodiska med det oerhörda. En finkalibrering av ögat men också en skärpning av medvetandet om kosmiska sammanhang.
En meditation med öppna ögon. Om man inte efter fyrtio minuter bara drabbas av insikten att också årstiderna är loopade.

Mikael Olofsson
Göteborgs Posten 2008-09-20