GUNHILD MATHEA HUSVIK-OLAUSSEN
ACADEMY OF PERFORMING ARTS, ØSTFOLD UNIVERSITY COLLEGE / NORWEGIAN ARTISTIC RESEARCH PROGRAMME
This exposition is part of Gunhild Mathea Husvik-Olaussen’s artistic research project Responsive Space – Sounding into Materiality (2014–2020) at the Norwegian Theatre Academy, Østfold University College. The project complies with the guidelines for the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme from 2019. Artistic practice and reflection are at the heart of the research programme.
Husvik-Olaussen’s mode of expression involves large sculptural sound installations that combine visual art, theatre and sound art. Her works explore space, materials, sound, the body and time as equal constituents in a composition. Each work offers a unique augmented experience of the dialogue between presence and materiality. It constitutes an environment that seeks to touch the zones of proximity where we are able to sense that, as humans, we participate in a fine-meshed weave with our surroundings.
The project Responsive Space – Sounding into Materiality resulted in a number of exhibitions, collaborations, pilot projects, artistic trials and presentations/lectures. The final showcase for the project was the Sounding Matter exhibition at Galleri F 15 in the period 01.02.2020–15.03.2020, with exhibition concerts originally planned for the weekend of 14 and 15 March. Regrettably, the exhibition had to close on 13 March due to the corona virus pandemic. A video account of the exhibition was filmed while the gallery was closed and shows empty installations with time as the only visitor.
This exposition focuses on the project’s three main audience events: Sounding Matter at Galleri F 15 in 2020, Resonance at the Henie Onstad Art Centre during the Ultima Festival in 2019, and Interference at Lydgalleriet in Bergen in 2019. In addition to their inclusion in the Sounding Matter exhibition, the site-sensitive works Resonance and Interference were also presented individually at the Henie Onstad Art Centre and Lydgalleriet, allowing them to be seen in alternative contexts. The sound heard in the videos is exclusively from the installations, and features the musicians performing in dialogue with the installations at various points.
Petrichor is a collection of texts composed during the research process. Personal and probing, they were written as interactive reflections. They became an important part of the process of slowly but surely narrowing the scope of possibilities of what the works were aiming for.
The exhibition is organised in a relatively linear form, and can be read in the following order:
Sounding Matter at Galleri F15 2020
Resonance at the Henie Onstad Art Centre / Ultima Festival 2019
Interference at Lydgalleriet in Bergen 2019
Petrichor
References
Acknowledgements
To navigate between the pages covering the exposition, click on CONTENTS to the far left in the drop-down menu that appears when you hold your cursor at the top of the page. Here you will find clickable links for each element of the exhibition. These will take you to the page you wish to visit. Take your time with each element, use good headphones and select full-screen viewing for the videos that present the documentation of the works. I would also recommend you to turn off any lights in the room where you are sitting for a better viewing experience.