MARIUS ENGH: "All Items Must Fit in Basket"
STANDARD (OSLO)
PRESS RELEASE
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MARIUS ENGH
"ALL ITEMS MUST FIT IN BASKET"
12.01.-12.02.2006 Opening: Thursday 12.01.2006 / 19.00-21.00
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STANDARD (OSLO) is proud to present its first solo exhibition with the artist Marius Engh. "All Items Must Fit In Basket" presents seven new works consistent with a recurring discussion in his production: a constant re-negotiation and re-evaluation of what represents the inside and the outside of the art context.
In his catalogue text for Sol LeWitt's exhibition at Dwan Gallery in 1966 fellow artist Mel Bochner concluded: "Everything is still. Everything is repeated. Everything is obvious". Like so many other works of this period the mathematical order of LeWitt's object equally verge on ontological clarity and the banal of geometry. The large-scale object at the centre of Marius Engh's exhibition could easily be mistaken for one of LeWitt's skeletal cube structures. However, reversing the ambition of Minimalist objects' attempt at linking closer to everyday life Engh appropriates object from everyday life resembling Minimalist objects. The black cube structure is infact a reproduction of a climbing frame from a local playground. Rather than setttling for the mere displacement of the ready-made, Engh carefully reconstructs the object in his studio. Neither 'sample' nor 'craft' become applicable to this act of translation, resulting in the above mentioned 'still', 'repeated' and 'obvious'. This work method of the disinterested is equally present in his group of four paintings next to the object; square black and white paintings copying newspaper crosswords. Whereas the painting "Gleaming the Cube" renders the logo of the American film from 1989 with the same title. More a classic in terms of its pioneering attempt at capitalizing on skateboard culture rather than in terms of its quality "Gleaming the cube" ironically enough refers to a state of almost perfection. This mismatch of content and form is even further visualiszed by the logo, where the three words are clumsily squeezed into a box.
"All Items Must Fit In Basket" systematically returns to the grid in its purest forms of authority and its equally pure forms of anonymity. The exhibiton shares its title with one of the works; a sign announcing "All Items Must Fit In Basket" is lying on top of a plastic box. The work revisits a universal situation where the instructions of standards are solved through simple and ad-hoc means. The cheap plastic box becomes the module indicating the maximum size, while at the same time its gridded structure serves as an emblem of its status as rationally standarized and mass-produced. Next to this is Untitled (Fence) (2005), where a steel fence surrounding a building site alternatively serves as a wastebasket on a warm summer day. The rigidness of the grid has been disturbed by a vast amount of plastic cups and bottles screwed into the fence by passerbys. This accidental accumulation - balancing inbetween system and deviance - takes form of a random archive. However, nowhere is the balance between authority and anonymity clearer than in the work "Cover Up". Referring to the scribbling on walls and in public toilets, a swastika symbol has been attempted functionally and ideologically nullified, simply by adding four lines. The result is clumsy gridded square, but where the traces of the original drawing never entirely disappear.
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Installation photography: Stein Jørgensen
