Mokkelbost and Storsveen investigate the basics of the collage structure. They both rely on a system of categorization and order to achieve the richness of their work, creating universes that move into very different directions.
The title of the exhibition is inspired by the graphic novel Une Semaine de Bonté (translated A Week of Kindness) by the dadaist and surrealist Max Ernst. The novel was first published in 1934. The novel consists of found images from Victorian encyclopedias and novels, cut up and re-organized into 182 montages which represent a kind of dark, surreal world. Unlike Ernst, who created this work in just three weeks, Mokkelbost and Storsveen have been developing their respective projects for several years.
Elise Storsveeen collects images from a wide range of sources; old school books, encyclopedias, fashion and sport magazines. The limitations in the cut and paste technique creates an ongoing process in renewing and remaking of her formal and narrative structures.
Storsveen distinctly use images that aim at portraying reality or the future, to construct fantasy. Passion, ecstasy and fear are some of the themes that occur in her fantastic stories, where both possible and impossible events can take place.
Are Mokkelbosts collage series ION started in 2000, when he was still a student at the art academy in Oslo. What have been constant throughout this time are the rules of the ION universe, what has evolved is the way of execution.
In ION, images from fashion- and lifestyle magazines are transformed by the cut and paste technique into symbolic opposites, creating six fundamental elements. The material is arranged by attribute, color and contrast. It is followed by a meticulous construction that pushes the collages towards a seamless, liquid and paint-like form, each collage having its own fictive lighting and color scheme.
