Daily Lazy: ALL FLESH IS HAY at Gislaved Konsthall

Participating Artists: Francis Patrick Brady, The disengaged free jazz orchestra, Nina Jensen, Max Ockborn, Matti Sumari, Hale Tenger, Victoria Versau

Curator:
Nils Svensk

23 Jun - 19 Sept

Gislaveds Konsthall
c/o Konstfabriken
Åbjörnsgatan 4 Gislaved

Max Ockborn, The Disengaged Free Jazz Orchestra. Photo: Lena Bergendahl

Victoria Verseau. Photo: Lena Bergendahl

Victoria Verseau. Photo: Lena Bergendahl

Victoria Verseau. Photo: Lena Bergendahl

The Disengaged Free Jazz Orchestra. Photo: Lena Bergendahl

Nina Jensen. Photo: Lena Bergendahl

Matti Sumari. Photo: Lena Bergendahl

Max Ockborn. Photo: Lena Bergendahl

Hale Tenger. Photo: Lena Bergendahl

Francis Patrick Brady. Photo: Lena Bergendahl

ALL FLESH IS HAY is an exploration of soulless humanity and animated materials. The exhibition has been created and is created throughout a number of open processes. Rather thatn bringing together a number of finished works it is a collaborative creation of an exhibition object. Seeking not to undermine the coming together in the space of works and vistors all are objectified as one; all flesh, all hay. There is only one material and materiality in the speculative instance of this exhibition is all there is. Body in soul; soul in body...

This is a large scale art exhibition that gathers contemporary artists in Gislaveds abandoned industrial spaces. Throughout the summer, until 19 Sept, the Konsthall is based in Gislaveds old rubber factory. This art event is possible thanks to a close collaboration with the local artist group Konst:fabriken who are supplying the space. The exhibition which has been created for the site is based primarily on works that have never been shown before and new site site-specific installations.

Painting and sculpture share the space with sound pieces, video and texts and a participatory installation that is providing employment for 20 local young individuals. It’s a very special summer job to help build and actually be part of an art work by artist Nina Jensen.

In the exhibition there are also other living elements, a few thousand nematodes are dancers in the Disengaged Free Jazz Orchestras performance piece Spells and Compost which is ongoing throughout the exhibition period with its culmination on July the 24th when the artist duo behind the piece Kajsa Wadhia and Maria Stiernborg make a special performance. The intro to that performance is already playing in the space and a kind of eco will remain in the space until the closing weekend which will contain a special programme, 18–19 Sept.

In Hale Tengers piece Reappearence a small plant, endemic to the space, that started growing in a moist corner of the exhibition space, is playing a lead role in an installation of sound and images in what is this international artists first presentation in Sweden.

All Flesh Is Hay is an exploration of the souls dwelling in the material world. Humans like animals, plants and things are material. We consist of flesh, when we die we eventually become dust, dust that turns into plants; hay. We are not so different then from the rest of the material world that we move through, the topography, the architecture, the interiors, furnishings and technology that surrounds us everyday is perhaps not so different from plants, animals or humans. We are made of the same stuff and what we usually call life is perhaps just one of many properties of the material.

Plastic eating bacteria are portrayed in Matti Sumari’s sculptures. These new life forms turn what we have learnt to think of as inorganic into organic matter. Living in and of the almost eternal refuse left behind by human kind. The materials of the sculptures are leftovers, plastic, broken glass fragments of construction materials. Much like the bacteria Sumari transforms matter into new objects, perhaps even new life.

As materials, we humans are malleable, we can be shaped and reshaped. Daily practices change the body and the mind. Victoria Verseaus cast dilators are the result of a repetetive practice. Once at a time the mould is filled and emptied, the casts are added one by one to a slowly growing monument. The shape’s origin is an instrument for a similar but inverted practice maintaining the neo-vagina. Work, or labour, materialises in exhibition spaces, and the artist’s body.

Is it just one extending material changing form; the mind is also flesh, and flesh is a material.

The body is at the same time the home of the soul and material; consiting of matter that changes over time. Homans are not stable r permanent, but changing, malleable and transient. Humnas like art work are material, but what souls live in an art work or an old industrial building?

All Flesh Is Hay is a suggestion of a way to meet the world and look at art: Consider everything as a material, including yourself. See evering as animate like yourself. Carefully whatch what is something, think of what it is not it’s parts, nor it’s relations but what it is in itself, as a whole; an object.

Francis Patrick Bradys text is na object in itself, tying history and materials into one and other. It works simultaneously as a piece in the exhibition and an opening to the texts and theory that is connected to the exhibition. Rubber Boots and a Paper Plane talks about different kinds of movement at the same time as it sets the work of creating a collaborative book version of tAll Flesh Is Hay in motion.

Max Ockborn creates new objects in his sculpture by bringing objects together, screws, horns, sticks, stones, seashells and furniturefor example become an animal. Pieces of wood, glue , laquer and old clothes become the new receptionist of the gallery. In this way new companions are created and new friedns are built. His Sculptures populate the same space as visitiors and staff in the exhibition. The paintings on the other handhave traditional placements in an untradtional space and seem to consist of the same material as the building itself (but don’t we all) a material rearrangement like that of the sculptures but to a different end.

PERFORMANCE:

THE DISENGAGED FREE JAZZ ORCHESTRA – SPELLS AND COMPOST

21.07.24 kl. 13–16 // 1 – 4PM

Links to artists:

FRANCIS PATRICK BRADY

https://francis-patrick-brady.co.uk/

THE DISENGAGED FREE JAZZ ORCHESTRA

https://disengagedfreejazz.com/

NINA JENSEN

http://nina.societe.se/

MAX OCKBORN

https://maxockborn.com/