For her solo exhibition at South London Gallery Anne Katrine Dolven presents four film and video works which share a concern with portraiture, painterly composition and the passage of time.Dolven's more recent works further develop her interest in portraiture and painterly composition. But here Dolven introduces greater ambiguity on one hand, greater intrigue on the other.
For her solo exhibition at South London Gallery Anne Katrine Dolven presents
four film and video works which share a concern with portraiture, painterly
composition and the passage of time. Each work focuses on individuals or
couples in intense states of absorption. The carefully composed, painterly
images are shot in real time and left unedited. Unfolding slowly, recorded
scenes provide viewers with clues about the wider scenario, but reveal nothing
conclusive. Sound is significant throughout, the combination and placing of
works making us question the impact of sound, or its absence, on our
interpretation of events.
Born in Oslo, Norway, Anne Katrine Dolven trained as a painter. Her portrait
with cigarette, 2000, which is shown on a flat, wall-mounted screen, and the
video installation puberty, 2000, both make direct reference to paintings by
Edvard Munch which Dolven took as a starting point from which to explore
contemporary notions of identity, pleasure and desire. At first glance these
works look like static images, one of a woman holding a cigarette, the other of
a naked young woman sitting on a bed listening to music through headphones.
Closer observation reveals that the cigarette is burning, and the woman on the
bed is tapping out the rhythm of the music she is listening to. In this way
Dolven subtly reveals her chosen means of measuring the passage of real time and
the duration of her films - the time it takes for a cigarette to burn through or
for a track on a CD to be played from beginning to end.
Dolven's more recent works, it could happen to you, 2001 and headlights, 2001,
which was made especially for the exhibition, further develop her interest in
portraiture and painterly composition. But here Dolven introduces greater
ambiguity on one hand, greater intrigue on the other. She presents double
portraits of a man and woman together, be it lying next to each other on a bed
or in the headlights of a car, without giving any clues as to the true nature of
their relationships, their histories or the narratives surrounding the secific
moments which she has chosen to film.
Anne Katrine Dolven lives in London and Lofoten, Norway. Recent solo exhibitions
have taken place at the Philadelphia Museum of Modern Art, Kunsthalle Nurnberg,
Kunsthalle Bern, and Sadlers Wells, London. Anne Katrine Dolven is represented
by Anthony Wilkinson Gallery, London and carlier/gebauer, Berlin.
This exhibition has been organised in association with Film and Video Umbrella,
supported by the National Touring Programme of the Arts Council of England. With
thanks to Hitachi.
In conversation event
Anne Katrine Dolven will be in conversation with Sarah Kent at the Gallery on
Tuesday 23 October at 7pm. Admission free.
Talks
A free talk about the exhibition will take place at the Gallery every Friday at
1pm.
Open Tuesday to Friday 11-6, Thursday 11-7, Saturday and Sunday 2-6. Closed
Monday. Admission to the exhibition and talks is free.
For further information and images please contact
Juliet Bingham on 020 7703 6120 or email juliet@southlondongallery.org
South London Gallery
65 Peckham Road, London SE5 8UH
Transport: Oval or Victoria tube then 36 bus or Elephant & Castle then 12 or 171
bus.