Marte Johnslien: Forms of Protest
14 November 2014–1 March 2015
Henie Onstad Kunstsenter
Sonja Henies vei 31
N-1311 Høvikodden
Norway
As part of its commitment to the production of contemporary art, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (HOK) has commissioned a new work by emerging Norwegian artist Marte Johnslien: Forms of Protest, 2014.
Mindfulness and meditation practices are increasingly popular and often associated with self-development and self-improvement. Looked upon as individual acts of withdrawal, they come across as pacifying practices at odds with societal engagement, protest and action.
In this project, Marte Johnslien explores instead the mentioned practices not as acts of withdrawal, but as an active response to the world we live in. Interested in Buddhism as a way to open up the senses, she visited the first Tibetan Buddhist Center established in the Western world, Samye Ling in Scotland in 2013 (still operating today). One of the center’s founders, Chögyam Trungpa, developed a philosophy of art he called “Dharma Art,” which became important for artists like Alan Ginsberg and Allan Kaprow in the 1960s. Forms of Protest consists of four installations produced according to Trungpa’s Dharma Art, in which connections between social involvement, spiritualism, and art coincide.
Motivated to find a tool for creating a personal space of action, Johnslien in this project presents the idea of spirituality as the opposite of withdrawal: as a way to connect.
The commission of this work for HOK’s collection marks the conclusion of a series of eight commissioned works made possible by generous support from The DNB Savings Bank Foundation (2011–14) with projects by Angel Nevarez & Valerie Tevere, Camille Norment, Camilla Løw, Jenny Hval, Lene Berg, Are Mokkelbost, and Lea Porsager.
Curated by Gerd Elise Mørland
Marte Johnslien (b. 1977) lives and works in Oslo. She has held solo exhibitions at Galleri Riis, Kristiansand Kunsthall, and 0047 among many more. She has executed several public art commissions, and showed work at Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, Irland (2008), Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerpen, Belgia (2010). Her works are represented in a.o the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Norway.
