The Bergen Kunsthall presents Brannon, Buttner, Kierulf, Kierulf, Kilpper an exhibition, on view 9 March–8 April, 2012.
Caroline Kierulf, 2012
The exhibition revolves around what could be called ‘the materiality of communication‘ as well as the fluid and unstable meanings of communicated signs. The five artists all make use of graphic and printed media combining text, illustration and image. The use of these media is nevertheless situated in an inconclusive relationship where text, language, illustration and the actual material medium that communicates all these sign systems are set against one another, often in contradictory and enigmatic combinations.
Woodcut, letterpress and other printing techniques constitute a primary focus in the exhibition. Such reproduction technologies point back to the very first mass media where duplication made it possible for the first time to print many copies of the same text or illustration, and thus to distribute a message simply in large editions. The exhibition deliberately focuses on media that stand in a kind of historical intermediate position in the field of art. Although the woodcut has a rich tradition in art history, both woodcut and letterpress can be seen pretty much as anachronisms on the contemporary art scene. But the complex role of these techniques as historical mass media permits another perspective than the position that the print has acquired in the history of art, often as secondary to painting. The historicity of the media technology itself also permits a special kind of critical distance from art, mass media, and popular culture.
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