Lina Viste Grønli
Johan Berggren Gallery, Malmö, Sweden
Lina Viste Grønli, 'LETRS FROM PRISN’, installation view (2009)
Lina Viste Grønli’s exhibition ‘LETRS FROM PRISN’ at Johan Berggren Gallery is formulated like a well-structured sentence: though her vocabulary consists of an odd assortment of found objects and books, every sculpture seems to have its place. Consider Two Paths (2007), which is composed of a handful of books packed snugly into a custom-made metal container. The volumes seem to be pulled at random out of a bookshelf – a personal selection left on display. Collections such as these usually include some well-known authors, but can also yield a lesser-known, tucked-away volume bathed in mystery and intrigue. Indeed, many of the books here explore mystical worldviews, magical rituals and intriguing phenomena such as the lunar effect. Yet how easily we neutralize or flatten out the depths of such explorations, how easily the elegance of a more rationalistic perspective undermines the implausibility of such explorations. The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), one of the titles found here, offers such a perspective: the author, Joseph Campbell, looks back at myths, stories and religious narratives, proposing that the same archetypal hero is to be found in all of world’s mythology. However, if we always tell the same story, if we only repeat what has already been said, it seems that language veils this repetition with its own force: its ability to appear different every time it is uttered.
Lina Viste Grønli, Two Paths (2007)
In ‘LETRS FROM PRISN’ almost everything is altered and re-contextualized; there is almost nothing unique in itself. The exhibition functions as an index of references, a crossroad between different disciplines and ideas, branches of thought and knowledge. Unintentionally, the viewer may begin to spell out words, allowing oneself to indulge in the casual delight of solving riddles, catching oblique references or finding new ones. In this work, as in a primary school classroom, this playful attitude is cleverly intertwined with an educational mandate: standing sternly in the front of the gallery on a plinth of mortar and bricks, Lost Mind (Lou Harrison) (2009) – a belt shaped and hardened into an upright letter ‘S’ – may first appear to be a pedagogical aid. It stands isolated, appearing like an artifact on display as much as a basic unit of language. One encounters it as a physical object; no longer a letter, no longer a belt, but a brute, frontal materiality, seemingly dispelled from its original function. At the same time, the belt curves majestically upwards, as if possessed by a snake charmer’s spell, perhaps extracted from some communal gathering to signify the malleability of language.
Lina Viste Grønli, Walser (2009)
In language there are many words, phrases and expressions that are closely associated with a specialized field, resulting in a very precise function and meaning. There are many other linguistic terms – such as ‘freedom’ or ‘idealism’ – which are too ambiguous, too general to assign a single meaning to. These words however, often become intimately entangled with an ideology – whether it is political, social or cultural in nature – which utilizes these words for a very specific aim. They are used to galvanize a cause and, through endless repetition, their meaning becomes imprisoned, particularized, codified. ‘LETRS FROM PRISN’ reflects on such an imprisonment of language, on the tokenism of certain art works and movements, which are reduced to a mere representation of a certain style, an –ism, a specific school of thought. For example, in her choice of materials, such as plywood and cast metal and her use of the ready-made, Grønli toys with a Modernist aesthetic. Another work, Monkey Face (October), (2009) seems to comment on the legacy of Postmodernism and body theory in the positioning of a coconut over a model’s face on the cover of a Vogue magazine.
Lina Viste Grønli, Off the Road (2007)
Through self-reflection, through engagement in play and activation of external references, Grønli’s work attempts to allow for a more complex relationship with the viewer, where no single meaning is preferable, where the engagement itself produces new meanings and new references. This is exemplified by Summer Hill (2009), a sculpture constructed out of familiar, triangular puzzle-like pieces, which are arranged not into an expected solution, but into an unstable, Modernist structure. Perhaps, this gesture represents a defiance, a simple refusal of the regime of repetition. This structure also functions as a bookshelf, a single book by A.S. Neill occupies its space, fittingly entitled Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Education (1959).
Wojciech Olejnik
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