Ingrid Eggen “Virvx”

The earthworm is creeping slowly towards its new home, taking its chance on the humid road. She doesn’t see it, she doesn’t hear it, neither can she feel when the worm’s body is parted in two and made unrecognizable, flat under her sole. One half’s still inching in the gravel. The air is near, and she pulls her jacket tighter round her body. The sun’s rays look out from behind the clouds and infiltrate her eyes. She squints and the corners of her mouth lift in an unintentional smile. One step with the parted worm, now a wet mark under her shoe. Her braces, pressuring rows of teeth in place, glisten in the sun and rub the inside of her cheek. One single drop of blood blends with her saliva and colors them pink. Pink against her yellow shirt, below the brown jacket on which the man’s hand is walking. Fingers as legs, one step at a time, from her wrist to her shoulder.

Their mouths are open, and their tongues stretch into each other, rotating, twisting invertebrates. Heavy drops of rain rest on pointed leaves above. She breathes him, he breathes her, the worm breathes too-, and the tree. One foot is placed forward and the other behind. He loses his balance, and he falls and lands with his arse on the ground, on top of the springy, dark green, blades of grass that are mindlessly sucking nutrition from the soil. Look at that hand up in the air; five fingers in the light, arteries and oxygenated blood! Titanium flash, or stainless steel? Bumblebees dance in hives all around, vibrating distances to encourage friends’ hairy tongues to reach deep into stricta virvelosa, corpus normativitus and knelius rotetus. They are not so far away.

Text by Moa Alskog

KNIPSU ser frem til visning av Ingrid Eggens nye arbeider.
Åpning fredag 5. okt kl 19, Strandgaten 224!

Ingrid Eggen jobber i hovedsak med analogt fargefotografi og video, og har det siste året startet eksperimentering med skulptur. Gjennomgående i Eggen sin kunstneriske praksis er en konseptuell holdning til kroppen, i både abstrakt og konkret forstand.
Hun undersøker kroppens funksjon og dysfunksjoner. Ved hjelp av performative metoder undersøker hun intime gester og bevegelser i menneskekroppen i forhold til kommunikasjon, representasjon, kontroll og bevissthet. Studier der kroppens naturlige anatomi, nonverbale språk og bruk av gester og symboler forskyves, oppløses og fordreies er et hovedanliggende i Eggen sitt arbeid. Eggen er interessert i den informasjonen kroppen lagrer ukritisk og hva som skjer når dette danner hovedgrunnlaget for kroppens bevegelse og ytring. Hun undersøker kroppens ubevisste reflekser og ser på dette som en mulighet for å danne nye nonverbale språk og ytringer.

Eggen er utdannet med en BFA grad fra Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo, Institutt for Farge; Konstfack, Stockholm og med et selvstendig prosjektstudie fra Akademin Valand, Gøteborg.
Eggen har tidligere vist arbeider ved blant annet Haugar Vestfold Kunstmuseum, Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, Ulterior Gallery, New York, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City, Fotogalleriet, Oslo, galleri 1857, Oslo og Rake visningsrom, Trondheim. De seneste separatutstillingene inkluderer «Kneganger» på Galleri Galleberg og Landskrona Fotofestival, Sverige, «Knax» på galleri Melk, Oslo og «Knex» på Akershus Kunstsenter, Lillestrøm.

ENG:
Ingrid Eggen makes use of a conceptual approach to the body in her artistic practice. She explores the body’s functions and dysfunctions in relation to communication, representation, control and awareness. With the help of performative methods, Eggen looks into movements and acts where the body’s natural anatomy, non-verbal language and use of gestures are displaced, dissolved and twisted. She mainly works with analogue colour photography and video and has commenced experimenting with sculpture during the last year.

Eggen is educated from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (Institutt for Farge), Konstfack, Stockholm and the Valand Academy, Gotheburg. Eggen has participated in exhibitions at Haugar Vestfold Artmuseum, Lillehammer Artmuseum, Ulterior Gallery, New York, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City, Fotogalleriet, Oslo, galleri 1857, Oslo and Rake visningsrom, Trondheim. Her recent solo shows include«Kneganger», Landskrona Fotofestival, Sweden, 2017; «Knax», Melk galleri, Oslo, 2017 and «Knex», Akershus Kunstsenter, Lillestrøm, 2017.