SÍM

Það gleður okkar að tilkynna opnun haustsýningar Skaftfells:

Rikke Luther – On Moving Ground. Sand, Mud, and Planetary Change
17. september – 20. nóvember 2022 í sýningarsal Skaftfells

Opnun: 17. september, kl. 16:00-18:00 í Skaftfelli og kl. 18:00-19:30 í Herðubío (kvikmyndasýning).
Sýningarspjall með listamanninum verður 18. september, kl. 14:00 í Skaftfelli.

Opnunartími: Þri-sun 17:00-22:00, mán lokað.

Einkasýning Rikke Luther í Skaftfelli sýnir yfirstandandi rannsóknir listamannsins á pólitískum, samfélagslegum og umhverfislegum tengslum milli jarðefnavinnslu, nútímans, jarðvegseyðingar og hnattrænna breytinga. Verk hennar kanna áhrif sandnáms, kolefnisfrekrar framleiðslu steinsteypu og áhrif hækkandi hitastigs, á stöðugleika jarðarinnar sem við búum á. On moving ground býður upp á innsýn í fjölbreyttar rannsóknaraðferðir og listræna framleiðslu listamannsins, allt frá kvikmyndum til stórra teikninga til safnefnis, vísindagagna, texta og ljósmyndunar.

Í tveimur sýningarskápum sýnir listamaðurinn úrval glósa og ljósmynda úr vettvangsrannsóknum. Þeim var safnað fyrir verkefni á Grænlandi, Brasilíu og Japan á árunum 2016-2021 og sýna rannsóknir hennar á leðju sem viðfangsefni. Ásamt tveimur eldri verkum, Constructing the State # I. Concrete and the Political Economy of Construction, Japan (2004) og Constructing the State # II. Concrete and the Political Economy of Construction, Mexíkó (2005), hvetja glósurnar áhorfandann til að draga fram tengsl milli þróunar í mismunandi heimshlutum sem spá fyrir um eða tjá óstöðugleika yfirborðs, búsvæða og hugmynda. Með því að fylgjast með athöfnum mannsins og framkvæmdum hans í nýjum óvissuþáttum hnattrænna breytinga, lýsir langtímarannsókn Luthers frásögninni af tilveru mannkyns innan flókinna hnattrænna ferla sem ekki er lengur hægt að aðgreina í "menningarlega" og "náttúrulega", heldur verða þeir upplifaðir sem einn og sami veruleikinn.

Þrjár stórar teikningar Luthers á striga, framleiddar sem hluti af leikmynd fyrir steppdanssýninguna The Sand Bank(2018), kortleggja áhrif sands sem hráefnis í nútíma stjórnmálum, menningu og hagkerfi. Uppgötvun steinsteypu og óseðjandi matarlyst nútímaarkitektúrs á henni, ásamt útþenslu afurða Sílíkondalsins, hafa leitt til þess að eftirspurn eftir sandi hefur aukist um allan heim. Ofnýting sandbakkans á plánetunni er djúpt tengd útópíum og dystópíum 20. aldar. Jafnvel má finna samband á milli herkænsku kaldastríðsins og djúpsjávarnámugraftar dagsins í dag. Á sama tíma mun alþjóðlegur skortur á sandi taka þátt í að móta sögu aldarinnar sem við lifum á.

Kvikmyndin Concrete Nature: Planetary Sandbank (2018) “kannar pólitíska sögu steinsteypu og samfélagsgerðina sem hún leiðir af sér. Rikke Luther fléttar fjölbreyttu rannsóknarefni inn í persónulega frásögn. Kvikmynd hennar dregur fram þá menningarþræði sem liggja á milli mikilvægra augnablika nútímans; frá ‘uppgötvun’ steinsteypu á fyrstu áratugum 19. aldar, í gegnum hugmyndafræðilegar vonir módernista, til sandskorts okkar tíma og vonir fjárfesta um framtíðar, handan-heimsslita, 3D-prentað steinsteypusamfélag í geimnum. Myndin var tekin í og við MIT háskólasvæðið, Cambridge, Boston, New York, Hudson River, High Fall, London, og inniheldur sögulegar myndir. Hún kannar steinsteyptar byggingar sem voru pólitískar áður en þær voru reistar, áður en arkitekt ljáði þeim sérstaka rödd sína; pólitísk rödd þessara bygginga er nú yfirskrifuð, endurskrifuð og þurrkuð út, vegna breytinga á hugmyndafræði og umhverfi." (Luther)

Sýningaropnuninni fylgir kvikmyndasýning á nýjustu mynd Luthers, sem er enn í vinnslu og verður frumsýnd síðar árið 2022: “Concrete: The Great Transformation (2019-) er framhald af Concrete Nature: The Planetary Sand Bankfrá 2018. Myndin blandar saman myndum og athugasemdum sem byggja á sögulegum rannsóknum og persónulegri frásögn. Rannsóknin hefst með heimsóknum á þrjá sögulega námuvinnslustaði, sem tengjast tinnusteini, kolum og kalksteini, áður en haldið er áfram til að skoða stað þar sem jörðin er notuð til að líkja eftir ‘tungl regolit’. Þessar heimsóknir tengja tilraunir fortíðar, nútíðar og framtíðar til að blanda ímyndunarafli mannsins við jarðnesk efni, og endar með tæknilegum vonum um þrívíddarprentun steinsteypu fyrir framtíðarbyggðir milli pláneta.“ (Luther)

Sýningarstjóri er Julia Martin.

Um listamanninn:
Nýjustu verk Rikke Luther (DK) kanna ný tengsl sem skapast af umhverfiskreppu tengd landslagi, tungumáli, stjórnmálum, fjármögnun, lögum, líffræði og hagkerfi, tjáð í teiknuðum myndum, ljósmyndun, kvikmyndum og kennsluaðferðum. Hún hefur gegnt kennslustörfum í Danmörku og haldið fjölda gestafyrirlestra víða um heim. Verk hennar hafa verið kynnt á tvíæringum og þríæringum [Feneyjum, Singapúr, Echigo-Tsumari, Auckland og Gautaborg], söfnum [Moderna Museum, Kunsthaus Bregenz, The New Museum, Museo Tamayo, Smart Museum], sýningum [Beyond Green: Towards a Sustainable Art, 48C Public.Art.Ecology, Über Lebenskunst og Weather Report: Art & Climate Change] og kvikmyndahátíðum [CPH:DOX* - Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival]. Árið 2016 skapaði Luther nýtt verk fyrir 32. Bienal de São Paulo og hefur stundað listsköpun sína sem einstaklingur síðan. Áður fyrr starfaði Luther einungis sem hluti af listhópum. Hún var meðstofnandi Learning Site (virk 2004 til 2015) og N55 (virk með upprunalegum meðlimum frá 1996 til 2003).
Árið 2021 varði Luther doktorsritgerðina sína Concrete Aesthetics: From Universal Rights to Financial Post-Democracy. Hún verður gefin út árið 2022/23 með viðbættum textum eftir Esther Leslie og Jaime Stapleton.

Rikke Luther er gestalistamaður Skaftfells í september 2022 þar sem hún stundar vettvangsrannsóknir fyrir núverandi rannsóknarverkefni sitt More Mud, kvikmynd sem ætlað er að komi út árið 2024. Verkefnið er styrkt af Nordic Alliance of Artists' Residencies on Climate Action (NAARCA), sem Skaftfell er hluti af. Verkefnið er einnig hluti af nýdoktorsrannsókn Luthers, The Ocean-Lands: Mud Within the Earth System, sem fer fram í ‘Queen Margrethe’s and Vigdís Finnbogadóttir´s Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Ocean, Climate, and Society’ (ROCS) og hjá The GLOBE Institute / Danish Natural History Museum / Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate.

https://rikkeluther.dk
https://rikkeluther.dk/PhD

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Skaftfell is very pleased to announce the opening of its autumn exhibition:

Rikke Luther – On Moving Ground. Sand, Mud, and Planetary Change
September 17 – November 20, 2022, Skaftfell gallery

Opening: September 17, 16:00-18:00 in Skaftfell and 18:00-19:30 in Herðubío (film screening)
Gallery talk with the artist: September 18, 14:00 in Skaftfell

Opening times: Tue-Sun 17:00-22:00, Mon closed

Rikke Luther’s solo exhibition at Skaftfell presents the artist’s ongoing research into political, societal and environmental connections between mineral extraction, modernity, soil erosion and planetary change. Her work explores the impacts of sand mining, the carbon-intense production of concrete, and the effects of rising temperatures on the stability of the ground we live on. On moving ground offers an insight into the artist's wide-angled research methodology and artistic output, from film to large-scale drawings to archival material, scientific data, text and photography.

In two vitrines the artist presents a selection of notes and photographs from field studies. They were gathered for projects in Greenland, Brazil and Japan between 2016-2021 and still inform her ongoing research into the subject of mud. Together with two early works, Constructing the State # I. Concrete and the Political Economy of Construction, Japan (2004) and Constructing the State # II. Concrete and the Political Economy of Construction, Mexico (2005), the notes encourage the viewer to draw connections between developments in different parts of the world that foreshadow or express the destabilization of surfaces, habitats and ideas. Observing human activity and its implementation in the new uncertainties of planetary change, Luther's longterm research describes over time the emerging narrative of humanity's existence within deeply entangled global processes that can no longer be separated into "cultural" and "natural", but are becoming experiential as one and the same intricate reality.

Produced as a part of the scenography for the tap dance show The Sand Bank (2018), Luther’s three large-scale drawings on canvas map the implication of sand as a raw material in modern politics, culture and economy. The discovery of concrete and modern architecture's insatiable appetite for it, along with the rise and expansion of Silicon Valley's products have led to a global skyrocketing of the demand for sand. The exploitation of the planetary sandbank is deeply linked to the troubled history of the 20th century, its utopias and dystopias. A line can even be traced between Cold War intelligence tactics and today’s practice of deep sea mining. Meanwhile, the emerging global scarcity of sand will participate in shaping the history of the century we live in.

The film Concrete Nature: Planetary Sandbank (2018) "explores the political history of concrete and the social structures it embodies. Rikke Luther’s dialogue weaves a broad range of research material into a narrative of personal exploration. Her film draws out the cultural threads that lay between critical moments of modernity; from concrete’s ‘discovery’ in the first decades of the 19th century, through ideological hopes of Modernists, into our era of sand scarcity, and investor’s hopes for a future, post-apocalyptic, 3D-printed concrete society in space.
The film was shot in and around the MIT campus, Cambridge, Boston, New York, Hudson River, High Fall, London, and includes historical images. It explores concrete buildings that were politicized before they were constructed, before an architect lent them their particular voice; buildings whose political speech is now being overwritten, rewritten, and erased, by the shifting stands of ideology and environment." (Luther)

The exhibition opening is accompanied by an exclusive cinema screening of Luther's latest essay film, which is still in process and will premiere later in 2022: "Concrete: The Great Transformation (2019-) is a follow up to 2018’s ‘Concrete Nature: The Planetary Sand Bank’. The film mixes images with a commentary based on historical research and personal narrative. The investigation begins with visits to three historical extraction sites, relating to flint, coal, and limestone, before moving on to examine a site where the Earth’s materials are being used to simulate ‘lunar regolith’. These visits ground an exploration of past, present and future attempts to mix human imagination with earthly materials, ending with technological hopes for 3D-printing concrete for future interplanetary settlements.“ (Luther)

Curated by Julia Martin.

About the artist:
Rikke Luther’s current work explores the new interrelations created by environmental crisis as they relate to landscape, language, politics, financialisation, law, biology and economy, expressed in drawn images, photography, film, and pedagogical strategies. She has held teaching positions in Denmark and given numerous guest lectures around the world. Her work has been presented in Biennales and Triennales [such as Venice, Singapore, Echigo-Tsumari, Auckland and Göteborg], museums [such as Moderna Museum, Kunsthaus Bregenz, The New Museum, Museo Tamayo, Smart Museum], exhibitions [like Beyond Green: Towards a Sustainable Art, 48C Public.Art.Ecology, Über Lebenskunst and Weather Report: Art & Climate Change] and film festivals [like CPH:DOX* - Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival]. In 2016 Luther created a new work for the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo and has been working solo since. Prior to that, Luther worked exclusively in art collectives. She was a co-founder of Learning Site (active 2004 to 2015) and of N55 (active with original members from 1996 through to 2003).
In 2021 Luther defended the PhD Concrete Aesthetics: From Universal Rights to Financial Post-Democracy. It will be published in 2022/23 with extended texts by Esther Leslie and Jaime Stapleton.

Rikke Luther (DK) is in residency at Skaftfell in September 2022 to conduct field studies for her current research project More Mud, producing a new film by 2024. The project is commissioned by the Nordic Alliance of Artists’ Residencies on Climate Action (NAARCA), of which Skaftfell is a member. It is also part of Luther’s postdoctoral research The Ocean-Lands: Mud Within the Earth System, conducted at the ‘Queen Margrethe’s and Vigdís Finnbogadóttir´s Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Ocean, Climate, and Society’ (ROCS) and at The GLOBE Institute / Danish Natural History Museum / Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate.

https://rikkeluther.dk
https://rikkeluther.dk/PhD



Styrkt af / Supported by:
Menningar- og viðskiptaráðuneytið
Múlaþing
The Nordic Alliance of Artists’ Residencies on Climate Action (NAARCA)
Uppbyggingarsjóður Austurlands