Spiritual Time and Space

An exhibition by Lona Hansen, Sara Rönnbäck and Daniel Slåttnes at Visningsrommet USF, Bergen (NO)

This exhibit explores the challenge of “materializing the moment.” As artists, we share a common tendency toward overwhelming, fundamental experiences such as death, emptiness, absence and presence. Though our individual aesthetic expressions may differ, we collectively aim to facilitate performative meetings between the spectators and our sculptures. For the purpose of this exhibition we wished to unite three different projects, each materializing one of the intangible experiences of our existence. How short is a moment? How long is eternity? What is the shape of nothing?

Together we invited the audience to take part in a choreographic exhibition of works of art in a constant state of change. By doing this, we wished to present each visitor with the opportunity to thoroughly meet themselves in relation to time, body and space.

Sara Rönnbäck

Rock on burnt sugar slab and steel frame
55 x 40 x 40 cm, 65 x 20 x 60 cm and 55 x 40 x 40 cm

Three rocks are supported by three tables in front of a window. The tables appear to be made of steel and glass. They reflect the light coming in through the window. A sweet scent reveals that the tabletops are actually made of burnt sugar. The heat and the humidity slowly dissolve the sugar until the slab cracks and the rock falls to the ground, causing a break in time. After a moment of confusion, once the rock settles on the ground, it all seems self-evident, as if the sculptures had been made that way.

Earth to earth
Sara Rönnbäck

Woven baskets with compost 170 x 80 x 40 cm
Aluminum and steel chimes 120 x 30 x 30 cm

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 -1st Mos. 3:19

This work is composed of woven paper baskets filled with compost, which slowly eats its way through the paper and turns it into dirt to the rhythm of metal chimes. All the effort that went into rolling the paper and carefully weaving it into a container disappears in the space of a few weeks, after which it is but a memory. The meeting with the sculpture, which is shaped like a human body, forces the spectators to confront the impermanence of their own bodies, but also of their thoughts. Everything is temporary and in a constant state of change.

Where does death end and life begin? Is there a moment where life and death are equally present or equally absent? When does it become impossible to speak of dead matter without considering the new life that emerges? Would the new have been possible without the old?


Ashes to Ashes
Sara Rönnbäck

Burnt marshmallow on wood
60 x 70 x 60 cm, 30 x 30 x 30 cm och 25 x 7 x 7 cm

This work is made up of three sculptures made of wood and charred marshmallow. A sweet fiery smell surrounds them. The eyes are deceived into thinking that the marshmallow shapes are hard, some kind of rock, maybe lava. The tree trunk on the other hand indicates something organic. Maybe the shapeless growths are specimens of the much sought after chaga mushroom, which sells for a lot of money at the local health food store. If one were to touch the work, the ashes would collapse and disappear as if they were clouds of smoke frozen in time.

In reality it is nothing but burnt marshmallow, charred into ashes.

Lona Hansen, Sara Rönnbäck and Daniel Slåttnes

A video loop is projected on the wall. It looks like an illuminated, rainy street or like waves of dust floating in the air. In reality the video is a recording of subatomic particles, the essentially invisible stardust that surrounds us at all times. The particles appear as little sparks, which create short streaks as they are burning up. This happens through a process in which alcohol evaporates when it is exposed to dry ice and subsequently collides with muons and electrons—the high-energy particles of the universe we call stardust.

Installation images from the exhibition at USF. For more images of the other artists works go to slaattnes.com and lonahansen.com