Patrik Aarnivaara, Mariane Hurum, Jose-luis Martinat, and Stina Wirfelt: The Bag of Tricks Show

The caterpillar said, "One side will make you grow bigger and the other side will make you grow smaller"

"One side of what? The other side of what?" thought Alice to herself.

"Of the mushroom," said the caterpillar.

Alice looked at the mushroom, trying to make out which were the two sides of it, as it was perfectly round.

(Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865)

The Bag of Tricks show brings together four emerging artists who work consistently with material that is referential. Ideas, images and shapes from various sources are copied, appropriated and modified to form new entities in each of the artist's work. Patrik Aarnivaara's work reflects on the relationship between political ideas, art and architectural theories and geometrical shapes through an interplay of sculptures, texts and images. Marianne Hurum paints and makes still image videos with voice-over, based on her short fictional texts. She is interested in honing subjective linguistic precision in her work. Stina Wirfelt works predominantly with video, investigating the construction of meaning through an exploration of the language of the moving image. José-Luis Martinat’s work reflects his interest in images as pure artificial constructions and how we experience reality through them.

The last decade has seen a wave of art that seeks to make visible and recontextualize historically ignored material. The artists in The Bag Of Tricks Show represent an idiosyncratic, rather than correct or archival, use of source material. In this sense, they are more closely related to the post-modern eclectic use of imagery. The sentiment in some of the work is satirical and humourus, using narratives as a frame for assemblage. Other works echo the critique that during the 70’s and 80’s tried to make visible the ideological mechanisms in what appeared to be "neutral" images. The four artists' works emphasizes ambivalence and the conflict between having an aversion to something and, at the same time, being seduced by it.

At Intermedia, they will exhibit videos, text, sculpture, objects and paintings.

There will be a video screening in conjunction with The Bag Of Tricks Show. The screening takes place at the CCA4 cinema on the 10th of March at 7pm. The 90 min program will showcase videos that expand on the themes explored by the four exhibiting artists.

The artists in the screening are

Aeron Bergman & Alejandra Salinas (US/SPA)

Kristoffer Busch (NO)

Daniel Eatoch (UK)

Maria Lusitano (PT)

Steve Reinke (US)

Michael Robinson (US)

LeRoy Stevens (US)

Lisa Williamson (US)

Welcome!