Artists Tiril Hasselknippe
Date 09.02.2023 - 30.04.2023
Venue Kunsthall Stavanger, Norway
All images Courtesy by the artist and Kunsthall Stavanger. Photo: Erik Sæter Jørgensen
After building her career in New York, the critically acclaimed artist moved to Stavanger, Norway in 2020. She is specifically known for her sophisticated and intricate treatment of sculpture as material. Kunsthall Stavanger’s main gallery is dedicated to the artist’s first solo exhibition in the city.
Play is a continuation of Hasselknippe’s exploration of cosmic questions, alternative and parallel realities – inspired in part by science fiction. The exhibition consists of an enveloping installation in a dark room, with luminescent, variously sized arches – or portals – installed at different heights. The work is accompanied by a soundtrack made by the artist on a waterphone, an instrument that is frequently used in science fiction and horror movies. In Play, she takes a close look at wormholes – hypothetical shortcuts between different dimensions or times.
Hasselknippe is particularly intrigued by our individual perception of reality and the ways in which we experience it based on our different physical abilities. This is closely linked to the artist’s own insights from living with the chronic illness fibromyalgia, where pain and mental fogginess are parts of both her everyday life and artistic work. Hasselknippe manifests the inner visualisation of her chronic illness, while simultaneously show- ing the outcomes that our various choices and actions lead to – from entirely specific decisions in our lives to our very presence in the gallery.
Parallel universes, past and future worlds, and alternative experiences are often utilised in art as a subversive social criticism of our current situation – this is also the case in Play. A body that society regards as ill cannot be incorporated into the capitalist model, where all bodies are meant to produce and consume in a uniform and constant manner. Hasselknippe sees her illness as a tool to shift these ideals and expectations. In Play, her experience manifests itself in the corporeality, materiality, and all-embracing experience of the installation.
