MELK

1114
Morten Andenæs
green apples / blue sky
During Paris Photo

Morten Andenæs - green apples / blue sky - Paris November 2014

MELK in Paris

In November 2014, coinciding with Paris Photo, a collaborative Norwegian project opens in Paris showing a solo exhibition with photographer Morten Andenæs, in addition to a magazine launch and an artist talk between Andenæs and Lucas Blalock.

Curated by MELK , the exhibition green apples / blue sky is the first presentation of Morten Andenæs’ photographic works in France.

The exhibition title corresponds literally to two of the photographs on show; blue sky and green apples. The indexical nature of the title, revealing nothing but what experience subsequently will show, sets the stage for a short circuit. Simultaneously this recurring gesture mirrors photography’s condition as a reiteration or addition to reality that points to something reality is not able to articulate on its own. By explicitly stating that which otherwise might be incited through our desires and fantasies, Andenæs thwarts our capacity to freely project onto the photographs.

The latter becomes especially evident in Viktoria’s dirty little secret, blue sky or the picture studies from the series FUCK. Rather than allowing for the private play of fantasies, these photographs become injunctions and public spectacle. This leakage between the private and the public points to the complicity between the observer and the observed, and in the end mirrors the sticky symbiosis between state and individual typical of social democracies.

The works on display all stem from Andenæs’ ongoing project Regarding the middle class. As an overarching theme, the project and exhibition deals with the inherited constraints imposed on the individual from family and society, as well as the ensuing violent impulses such restrictions might cause. 

The exhibition coincides with a conversation between Morten Andenæs and Lucas Blalock at the gallery space hosted and moderated by Nina Strand, editor of Objektiv. Entitled Unknown Unknowns, the conversation acts as a continuation of a long-term correspondence between the two photographers, which began as a conversation essay for the latest issue of Objektiv. The talk will mark the launch of Objektiv #10, the second international issue of the bi-annual Norwegian magazine for lens-based arts. Objektiv #10 will include contributions by Lucas Blalock, Charlotte Cotton, Nan Goldin, Camille Henrot and Torbjørn Rødland amongst others.

Morten Andenæs (b.1979 Norway) lives and works in Oslo and is represented by Galleri Riis. 
He graduated from The School of Visual Arts, New York in 2002. His work has been shown extensively in Norway over the past five years and is included in several public and private collections in Norway and abroad, such as The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Fine Art in Oslo. Recent exhibitions include enclosed circuit (x), Galleri Riis, Oslo and Stockholm (2013), Plumbing, Peter Lav Gallery, Copenhagen (2012), observance, Galleri Riis, Oslo (2011), Mutual Exclusion, MELK, Oslo (2009) and Greyscale, with Ola Rindal, curated by Ida Kierulf and Tom Sandberg, Fotogalleriet, Oslo. He published his first major publication skyldfolk in 2013 (Teknisk Industri AS). Andenæs will show a solo exhibition at MELK in Oslo at the same time as green apples / blue sky in Paris.

Lucas Blalock (b. 1978 USA) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated with an MFA from UCLA in 2013 and a BFA from Bard College in 2002. His work has been shown extensively on an international level, recently at Tongue Mops and Bunny Pictures, ramiken crucible, New York (with Andra Ursuta) (2014), in New Pictures of Common Objects, MoMA PS1, New York (2013), Second Nature: Abstract Photography Then and Now, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA (2012-13) and Towards a Warm Math, On Stellar Rays, New York (2012). He published his first major monograph titled Windows Mirrors Tabletops in 2013 (Mörel Books). Blalock will present an outdoor exhibition titled Faces at photo Levallois, from October 10 to November 15.

The project is a collaboration between Objektiv, Fotogalleriet (Oslo) and MELK (Oslo), three separate Norwegian organizations that have in the past been responsible for exhibitions, lectures, seminars, publications and other presentation formats to showcase contemporary art with a particular focus on photography.

For further information contact Bjarne Bare from MELK at bjarne at melkgalleri.no
tel +47 97 59 37 37 or Nina Strand from Objektiv at nina at objektiv.no – tel +47 99 37 69 97

Location:
Kogan Gallery
96 bis rue Beaubourg 
75003 Paris 3
Metro: Arts et Métiers

Initiators:
Fotogalleriet
MELK
Objektiv

Supporters:
The Royal Norwegian Embassy, Paris
The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Office for Contemporary Art Norway
Galleri Riis, Oslo/Stockholm
Nøgne Ø

MELK