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Faded Remains
FADED REMAINS 16 black and white archival pigment photographs & coloured foil on glass The project is based on the intricate relationship between ancient Greek marble sculpture and colour. Despite the historical fact that these sculptures were originally painted in a multitude of colours, the white marble remains a quintessential characteristic of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, to this day. Since the Renaissance, the narrative that has been constructed around ancient Greek and Roman sculpture has been a story of white marble. Sculpture in white marble has come to signify more than just ‘Classical Antiquity’. It has also become a significant part of Western cultural identity. An understanding of these works as monochromatic has paved the way for new, modern canons of sculpture characterized by an emphasis on form with little consideration of colour. By the mid 18th century the ideology connected to the white marble surface was appropriated by neoclassical artists, making the unpainted marble surface a hallmark of the sculpture of that period, and through that, a hallmark of the classic period that it set out to revive. By the turn of the 18th century, western ideals of the highest order – aesthetical, philosophical and ideological - had been grafted on the white, untouched marble surfaces of Antiquity. The rediscovery of colour in classical sculpture therefore constituted, and still constitutes, a fundamental challenge to these ideals.
 The photographic works display canonized Greek and Roman sculptures, side by side with photographs of sculptures commissioned by Mussolini and the National Fascist Party in the 1940s. The latter with the intention to link artistic ties between the fascist party and the grandeur of the Roman Empire, by the use of one of its most recognizable symbols: the white marble sculpture. This despite that it was since long a known fact that colour had been an essential part of ancient sculpture. The pristine white marble surface was to play a symbolic and historicizing role in a political climate characterized by ideals of medical, racial, sexual, moral and visual hygiene. The lost colours of classical antiquity are reintroduced in the photographic works through pigment that lies on the glass of the picture frames. The coloured gradients take their colour palette from research conducted by professional restorative conservators on antique sculpture and act as a veil through which the black & white photographs are perceived. The project is generously supported by Arts Council Norway.
FADED REMAINS, 2018 INSTALLATION VIEW, GOLSA, OSLO
ILIONEUS, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
ATHLETE, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
THE DYING KING LAOMEDON, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
FADED REMAINS, 2018 INSTALLATION VIEW, GOLSA, OSLO
PALAZZO DELLA CIVILTÀ ITALIANA #1, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
KOUROS OF TENEA, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
THE BELVEDERE HERMES, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
PALAZZO DELLA CIVILTÀ ITALIANA #3, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
DRUNKEN SATYR, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
PALAZZO DELLA CIVILTÀ ITALIANA #5, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
YOUNG MAN IN THE FIRST TROJAN WAR, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
PALAZZO DELLA CIVILTÀ ITALIANA #2, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
LAOCOÖN AND HIS SONS, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
PALAZZO DELLA CIVILTÀ ITALIANA #4, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
THE BELVEDERE TORSO, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
FADED REMAINS, 2018 INSTALLATION VIEW, GOLSA, OSLO
NARCISSUS, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
APHRODITE OF KNIDOS, 2017 40X60 CM archival pigment print & printed foil on glass mounted on aluminium and framed
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