The exhibition invites the viewer to reflect on the external and internal landscape with a focus on preservation. Like the clay she shapes, thoughts are formulated about the circularity of nature, be it forests, mountains and human behavior.
"We often do not notice changes until it is too late, and we do not see the consequences of interventions in nature until after they have occurred."
This exhibition provides three entrances to how Anne Thomassen works conceptually with ceramics between the palms of her hands. The overarching theme revolves around our own relationship to the world we live in, which invites reflection and possible changes in attitude.
Places I've been. Places that mean something (freestanding sculptures)
The freestanding sculptural works seduce us at first glance with their abstract formal language, and their inviting painterly effect via their liquid, flowing glaze. The color compositions testify to conscious color relationships.
Mountain ranges, flowing water or frozen ice, slopes, forests and traces of some organic green. From an art historical perspective, the mountain represents something stable and lasting. The mountain refers to the security that we humans can relate to in turbulent times. However, these landscapes point to something more; These combine Anne Thomassen's joy of being out in nature, the powerful force that is greater than ourselves, a connection and belonging, especially in troubled times, but also a form of freedom. At the same time, the sculptural landscapes carry within them their own death. They speak of natural landscapes that are displaced, diminished or erased, as the areas are to be used for something other than being free in themselves. The various natural fragments refer to themselves, but are also witnesses of time to disappearing places.
The Landscapes (wall-hung reliefs)
Anne Thomassen is interested in the exploration of color and color combinations. This is expressed in various ways in her works.
In her wall-hung landscapes, the color combinations are based on conscious placements, be it observations she has made of colors seen from heights during flights. Distance to color fields is a constant in these landscape reliefs. The placements often consist of mobile phone photos taken from the air or color fields that are mapped in watercolors after returning home.
The jars:
The jar is an archetype in the history of ceramics. Where in ancient jars one could read mythological stories, Thomassen relates to the jar's shape as a blank canvas. The round body with the often narrow neck has been transformed into a rectangular base in our contemporary context. Where jars previously had the function of holding wine, water or oils, today's jars are more free to have a specific function. She uses her hands to shape the simple jars, they are hand-built, which in turn results in variations and distinctiveness in each and every one of them.
What Thomassen is also concerned with in her jars is the freedom to experiment with color combinations, where she likes to mix new, more - or less contrasting colors - than in her landscapes. The narratives of the past are replaced with a play of color and exploration on the jar's rectangular blank canvas.
"Ground control" is a newly created series for this exhibition, inspired by David Bowie and his latest album Black star. Here Thomassen fantasizes about the absurdity of today's society that is being pulled in the wrong direction, with Musk wanting to go to Mars while everything here on Earth is being forgotten and taken care of. Like Places I've Been. Places That Matter and Landscape, the focus is drawn back to the earth here and now, our own nature that is being polluted, exploited and unfortunately ignored.
Hilde Hernes, curator and artistic director of LIGHT ON
