CHRISTINE ÖDLUND
Music For Resurrected Atoms
April 25, 2019 - May 29, 2019
Opening: April 24, 2019 | h 6.00 pm
Press Release
MLF l Marie-Laure Fleisch is pleased to announce Christine Ödlund’s first exhibition at the gallery, Music for Resurrected Atoms. With plant communication at the core of her research, the artist uses plant pigments to visualize ways for humans to reach new levels of understanding with the vegetal world. Researching chemical signals, acoustic vibrations and similarities between the genetic processes of humans and plants, Ödlund creates works on paper, paintings, and videos which become living things themselves in the body of her work. Past works feed future investigations and allow the artist to deepen various theories or methods which would bring us closer to her ultimate dream of symbiotic communication between the animal and vegetable kingdoms. For this exhibition we will be showing a series of new works on paper and canvas, as well as four seminal video works in the downstairs spaces.
The colours present in Ödlund’s works are soft and earthy, due to the utilization of plant pigments. This show has also inspired the artist to create new pigments, sending plants from her studio and garden in Stockholm to the Belgian producer Lutea, who has transformed them into raw artistic materials. This creates a form of non-formal hyperrealism in the works, as the artist is using the plants she is representing and that she is trying to communicate with. One can thus see the artistic process as a form of communication in itself. The idea of a plant’s life cycle, linked to that of human’s through the transformation of carbon, is embodied in this transformation of plant to pigment, as the plant has a second life as an artwork.
With a background in photography and electroacoustic music, Ödlund’s works often read as musical scores, investigating ways that acoustic waves can reveal patterns or facilitate the exchange of information. As electroacoustic notation shows how sound fills a given space rather than how the music is played on an instrument, the notation itself takes on mountainous, organic forms which are found throughout the works. There is a porosity between scientific, visual and musical forms of thinking, where tangible objects or bodies become musical waves, and vice versa. Acoustics also play a key role in her videos, which is exemplified in one work where the artist studies the way butterflies drum on plants to send signals. This video has inspired two paintings, in which the creative process can be understood as a sort of artistic synesthesia where sounds evoke colours and forms.
The life cycle of plants, as well as processes such as photosynthesis, are omnipresent in the works and often combined with elements linked to human DNA. This constructs the more scientific core of Ödlund’s works, in which she investigates ideas linked to the transfer of carbon atoms, electric impulses in both humans and plants, and brainwaves. These ideas manifest themselves through imagery of Tesla coils, diagrams of molecules and chemical symbols. Conductive materials such as aluminum are applied to the surface of paintings, and videos of electric loops between man and plant spread over the downstairs walls. The combination of diagrammatic thinking, images and music scores are ways of using images and sound to understand complex processes, motivated by the desire to be able to listen more closely to the world around us.
Artist Biography
Lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden
Education
2002-2004
Electroacoustic Music / EMS (Elektronmusikstudion) / Stockholm
1995-1996
Royal Academy of Fine Arts / Video Department / Stockholm
1992-1995
Academy of Photography / Konstfack, University of Arts, Craft and Design / Stockholm
Solo Exhibitions
2018
Ionosphere * Plant * Metal * Aura, Galleri Riis, Oslo, Norway
2016
The Great Solar Eclipse, 1868, Galleri Riis, Stockholm; Dagmörker, Guntur, India
Aether & Einstein, Magasin III Museum & Foundation for Contemporary Art, Stockholm, Sweden
2014
Musikk for Eukaryoter, Trondheim Museum of Art, Trondheim, Norway
2013
Music for Eukaryotes, Galleri Riis, Stockholm, Sweden
Market Art Fair, Galleri Riis, Stockholm, Sweden
2011
The Armory Show, Thought-Form Materializing, Milliken Gallery, New York, United States
2009
The Armory Show, Thought-Forms, Christian Larsen, Stockholm, Sweden
Group Exhibitions
2018
The Beautiful Escape, CFHILL, Stockholm, Sweden
With The Future Behind Us, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Traces Ecrites, MLF | MARIE-LAURE FLEISCH, Brussels, Belgium
2017
Survival Kit 9, International Contemporary Arts Festival, Riga, Latvia
Alpha & Omega, Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik, Iceland
Utopins Arkeologi, CFHILL, Stockholm, Sweden
2016
Konstnären/The Artist, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Life Itself, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden
2015
Tunnel Vision, The 8th Momentum Nordic Biennial, Moss, Norway
2014
The Drawing Room, Magasin III Museum & Foundation for Contemporary Art, Stockholm, Sweden
Restaurering av inre rum, Charlottenburgs gård, Solna, Sweden
5th Marrakech Biennale, freq_out 10, Marrakech, Morocco
2013
Channelled, Lunds konsthall, Lund, Sweden
Restaurering av inre rum, Charlottenburgs gård, Solna, Sweden
Sonic Acts Festival, freq_out 9, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2012
Art and Music - Search for New Synesthesia, MOT - Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Restaurering av inre rum, Charlottenburgs gård, Solna, Sweden
Sonic Acts Festival, freq_out 9, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2011
freq_out 8, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Ynglingagatan 1, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Nordic Darkness, Kristinehamns Konstmuseum, Kristinehamn
Music in Art, Milliken Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
2010
The Moderna Exhibition 2010, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Thrice upon a time, Magasin III, Stockholm, Sweden
Park Life, Marabouparken, Sundbyberg, Sweden
Worshipping the Sun, Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel, (Curator: Sandra Weil)
Ocus Pokus, Visualization Center C, Norrköping, Stockholm, Sweden
Swedish Art & Culture, The US Ambassador's Residence, Stockholm, Sweden
2009
Botanic Sounds, The Botanical Garden, Gothenburg, Sweden
A Metaphysical Deal You Can't Resist, CFF, Stockholm, Sweden
2008
Creating Spaces, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Sonic Voices, Rocking Hard, Neederlands Instituut voor de Mediakunst, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2007
Ordinary Fantastic, Milliken Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
How Imitations Get Cornered By The Real, UKS, Oslo, Norway
2006
Linnés Natur, Linnés Hammarby, Uppsala, Sweden
Dwell, Galleri 54, Stockholm, Sweden
Man Machine, Tekniska museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Screenings and Performances
2018
Conjuring Creativity – Art & the Esoteric, Stockholm, Sweden
2017
Norbergfestival, Sweden 2017
Cryptogami, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm, Sweden
2016
freq_out 12, Wien Kanal, Sewer system, Girardi Park, Vienna, Austria
2015
Stress Call of the Stinging Nettle, Nordic Music Days, Kongernes Lapidarium, Copenhagen, Denmark
2014
Contemporary Resonances: The Art and Music of Christine Odlund, Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Utah, USA
2012
Swedish Energies, The Issue Project Room, New York, USA
2011
Phonofemme, Brunnenpassage, Vienna, Austria
2010
Sharing Art, Gothenburg International Film Festival, Gothenburg, Sweden
2009
Collapse, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
It's a Small World, International Filmfestival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2008
ICA / Swedish Outsiders, Festival of experimental sounds & films, London, England
iDEAL 10, Uppsala Konserthall, Uppsala, Sweden
Commissions and Public Works
2017
Cryptogami, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, Commissioned by Koro
2016
Musikaliska Konstruktioner, för metall och vatten, Karlstad, Germany, Commissioned by Karlstad municipality
2015
Livets träd, Kungshult Hospice, Helsingborg, Sweden
2014
FREQ_OUT 1.2 (skandion), Skandionkliniken, Uppsala, Sweden. Skandionkliniken
2013
Lindarnas Anatomi, Kista Gårds Park, Kista, Sweden. Commissioned by Stockholm Konst
Atlantis No. 2 / 2012, Statoil Oslo offices, Fornebu building, Norway
2011
Water Sample, Visualization Center C, Norrkoping, Sweden. Commissioned by the National Public Art Council Sweden
2008
Atlantis, animation commissioned by Animate Projects and RSA Arts & Ecology in association with Arts Council & Channel 4