Exhibition
Yuka Oyama: The Stubborn Life of Objects
«The Stubborn Life of Objects» is a project by Yuka Oyama, research fellows at the Art and Craft department, Oslo National Academy of the Arts. During Oslo Open the artist invites the audience to the concluding exhibition of her artistic research fellowship with performances, archive of her research, photographs, sketches, video screenings and artisk talk.
Picture: Yuka Oyama: Cleaning Samurai (2014)
Photo credit: Attila Hartwig
Design: Brigitte Speich
Events
Opening:
Friday 15 April, 5pm – 8pm
Exhibition period:
16 – 23 April, 12 pm – 6 pm
Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo (Oslo National Academy of the Arts), Fossveien 24, Oslo
Performances:
Friday 15 April at 6.30 pm
Saturday 16 April at 4 pm
Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo, Main Entrance
Video screenings:
16 – 23 April, 2pm - 5pm
Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo, Auditorium
Artist Talk:
20 April at 5 pm
Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo, Auditorium
A conversation between Yuka Oyama and Jørn Mortensen, Rector of Oslo National Academy of the Arts
About the project:
In the concluding exhibition of her artistic research fellowship at Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Yuka Oyama explores the intertwined relationship between objects and subjects, between people and things. Her research is centred in the field of contemporary jewellery and craft, from which she focusses on the wearer, the human body, its movements and how they relate to objects.
In the course of her fellowship Oyama developed multimedia installations, as well as wear able sculptures and films. Considering jewelry more than just a decorative moment, the artist takes up the cardinal question in her works: what does jewellery do to a person and what does a person do to jewellery?
With The Stubborn Life of Objects Oyama pushes this question even further as she lets the distinction between the object and the subject dissolve. What happens when things grow beyond their practicality and function? Which of their unconventional properties come into play? Things become alive in our minds, start demanding changed conditions, cause incon- veniences, and make us behave differently. In the exhibition the objects not only act for themselves, they are also meant to visualize and document the conditions of the time we are living in.
The artist’s vision of contemporary life as full of strangely mechanical interhuman relations and futuristic human-object rituals is dark and dystopian, yet her staged DIY exorcism and psychodramas with Karate colleagues, a group of young adults in search of their occupation, alternative seniors, and cosy collectors also includes a distinctive dose of slapstick humour.
Yuka Oyama’s first solo presentation in Norway took place in August 2015 when she showed her Encapsulation Suits at Oslo Kunstforening. The Stubborn Life of Objects now offers an overview of her research activities and strategies of the last years and combines selected research materials, sketches, puppet models, documentations of public inter- ventions, and photographs with various texts and visual sources. In parallel, a selection of film works produced during the fellowship period will be screened in the Auditorium.
Oslo Open
During one weekend in April, the artists of Oslo offer the great audience of Oslo an opportunity to step inside their studios and have a glimpse of the place where art is created. The artist’s studio is usually an exclusive place, inaccessible to people outside the professional field of art. Oslo Open facilitates an unmediated meeting between a general audience and the professional artist of Oslo. The festival is free and open for everyone.
In addition to Yuka Oyama’s exhibition research fellows; Tina Jonsbu, Katrine Køster Holst, Merete Røstad and Franz Schmidt invite you into their studio`s.
More information about Oslo Open.
