BUILDING A BRAIN

Fotogalleriet is pleased to present the first comprehensive solo exhibition by Kristine Dragland.

The exhibition visualizes the artist’s long-term interest in the relationship between different mental states – conscious and unconscious – and how these can act as complimentary forms of information processing. Referencing psychology theories and scientific experiments examining the human mind, Dragland’s works investigate how the use of subconscious stimulation affects human emotion and behaviour, both individually and collectively.

The work Chinatown subtly explores the visual measures of the film noir that helped to manifest the mid twentieth century psyche, and how these methods can be used to visualize psychological pressures experienced today. Contrary to the film noir, however, Chinatown makes use of the almost endless Los Angeles sunshine to unveil hidden spots of the human psyche: it shows places devoid of people, using only external architecture, light and shadow in an attempt to indicate particular psychological states. A soundtrack consisting of an improvised melody with lyrics from the index page of a psychology learning book relates the filmed architecture to psychological terms and theories.

Chinatown is built up against a set of other videos embedded in spray-painted foam mountains and a series of photographs in unconventional shapes and colours. One video looks at the medieval carnival as a collective effort to reach different levels of consciousness, while linking it to 1990s rave culture (Dance Intermission). Another (Building a Brain) first appears as a conventional city documentation but the screen’s surface is soon penetrated by a hand painting the shape of a brain, acting as a metaphor of how the brain registers our surroundings in our memory. In Sunset Boulevard Dragland photo-documented an eleven hour walk from the beginning to the end of Sunset Boulevard. The walk leads us through diverse parts of Los Angeles, using the city’s iconic buildings, signs and the boulevard itself as a method of examining self-realization.

Taking its title from one of the works in the exhibition, Building a Brain not only aims to investigate previous theories and experiments, but also to look its methods and results to examine if and how, art and architecture can trigger similar mental processes and social behaviour.

Kristine Dragland collaborated with Kittenparty aka Rohan Bridge for the soundtrack of the main exhibition space.

Kristine Dragland (born 1983 in Trondheim, lives in Oslo) graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Queensland College of Art, Brisbane in 2005 and an MA in Visual Arts from The National Academy of Fine Arts, Oslo in 2009. Recent solo presentations took place at Galleri Blunk, Trondheim (2012), One Night Only, Oslo (2011) and Prosjektrom Carl Berner, Oslo (2011). Participations in group exhibitions and festivals include Brain Faze, Raid Projects, Los Angeles (2013), Next Wave Festival (in collaboration with The Crash Crew), Melbourne (2010) and I Like it, Flipbook Gallery, Brisbane (2009).

The exhibition is produced with the support of The Norwegian Arts Council (Norsk Kulturråd), The City of Oslo (Oslo Kommune) and Atopia.