Soft Spot

Soft Spot is about sensitivity, being thin-skinned, having a weakness, a sentiment, a fondness - a soft spot - for something. This exhibition investigates a quite unidentifiable notion; feelings. Feelings are subjective experiences, complex sensations usually difficult to describe. The works in the exhibition offers different ways into this intangible psychological matter. Alternately, they share formal physical qualities that are pulling into different directions; a sort of radical display of tactile softness.

“Carrè 1 was created it in the sixties. I was fascinated by weaving as a possibility to create the object from its very beginning with responsibility for every detail. I loved the fact that it is like tree bark or broken stone, that it can open its body like breathing shells in the warm, pacific sea or like a growing flower opens the soil to grow and to flourish. The soft woven object has many meanings, creates multiple associations. This work belongs to a large group of works I created at that time that were called after my name, Abakans - soft sculptures. My work changed, it became figurative, sometimes abstract, but it is still based on my admiration for nature, for its mysteries and power”.

-Magdalena Abakanowicz

I grew up with Magdalena Abakanowicz work, Carrè 1. It was the starting point for this exhibition and is one of my “soft spots”; it represents not only my childhood but my first acquaintance with abstraction, materiality and sincerity of form. I wanted to connect her work with works by artists from my own generation that approach their work with the same sincerity.

Monstera by Franziska Furter is a paper version of a plant from the tropical regions of the Americas – its name derived from the Latin word for "monstrous" or "abnormal". The paper sculpture is suspended in the air from thin nylon threads. While the sculpture is very light and fragile, it simultaneously holds an intimidating darkness. The horrific deformity is just below the paper’s surface, threatening to jump out. 

Natural shapes are also present in Mikkel Wettre’s geometric abstractions; Holy Mountain appears in micro-view as snowy mountains or alpine glaciers. While the crystalline structure resembles mineral shapes, the monotonous surface mathematical pattern reflects the basics of a model. Holy Mountain also resembles the rigid shape of wet towels, and they appear as stylized results of gravity.

For two years now, Boris Achours work has been taking the form of a series (like a TV series) entitled Conatus, the Spinozian philosophical concept, which puts forward the idea of desire as a motivational force and the fulfillment of being through action. The works in this series can be considered as characters, which develop and modify their characteristics throughout time. The work he is showing at Soft Spot is Conatus : Yes, a mobile and its title, which is a piece in itself. His sculptural works are often made out of non-precious materials, like isolation material, neon-tubes, nylon rope, wood and spray paint.

Caroline Achaintre explores formal representations existing between the abstract and the figurative in her hand-tufted works. Nose is like a disfigured mask or face with a non-specific appearance emerging from the heavy, woolen material. She appropriates forms and adds distortion which comes down to an obscure aesthetic where the only possible representation of the object is through its dissolution and disfiguration. The works asymmetric shape and considerable size offers a physically powerful presence exclusive to this medium.

Bella Runes work Hung Out is an enormous chain made out of brown Persian lamb connecting two sides of a corner. While the furry sculpture has a distinct graphic shape, it’s also has anthropomorphic qualities, presenting itself like a sad amputated limb. However, the giant chain has a cartoonish cheerfulness that wrestles the work’s physical serenity.

Karl Larssons work Soft Spot Revisited is about the floating moment when one feels a potential that can be described as God-like. Larsson explains this moment as a “sudden feeling that is both liberating and isolating in the sense of the impossibility of communicating it or transfer it to somebody else.” Soft Spot Revisited is based on a translation of Fernando Pessoas book "Livro Do Desassossego" (The Book of Disquiet). According to the artist, the translation of the text from Portugese to English offers the same challenge as communicating the feeling described above.

Lars Laumanns installation Take your silverspoon and dig your grave is a citation from the Fleetwood Mac song “Gold Dust Woman”. The work is a tribute to another installation by the artist, The Tent of a 1000 Fleetwood Macs, itself a tribute to Fleetwood Mac tribute bands. The work The Tent of a 1000 Fleetwood Macs was lost when transported from an exhibition and thus this new work is a way of honoring the lost work. In the new piece Laumann has also included a quilt his mother made in the seventies, four hand-painted tambourines and a video documenting the previous work.

Marianne Zamecznik

Soft spot  - Exhibition overview (from left to right) : Magdalena Abakanowicz : Carrè 1 | Franziska Furter : Monstera

Soft spot  - Exhibition overview, from left:                                                                          Boris Achour: Conatus (Yes) mobile, Bella Rune: Hung Out

Soft spot  - Exhibition overview, from left: Lars Laumann: Take your silverspoon and dig your grave (quilt and tambourines) Lars Laumann : A night of a thousand Stevie Nicks (video) Boris Achour: Conatus (Yes) mobile Boris Achour: Conatus (Yes) title

Magdalena Abakanowicz
Carrè 1,1971
woven sisal
60 cm x 60 cm
Courtesy of Piotr & Lissen Zamecznik and the artist

Caroline Achaintre
Nose, 2007
hand tufted wool
190 cm x 124 cm
Courtesy of Blow de la Barra, London

Mikkel Wettre
Holy Mountain, 2007
spraypainted mdf
150 cm x 50 cm

Bella Rune
Hung Out, 2008
Persian lamb fur, wood, steel, styrofoam
110 cm x 75 cm

 Karl Larsson
Soft Spot Revisited, 2008
mixed media
dimensions variable

Lars Laumann
Take your silverspoon and dig your grave, 2008
Quilt, tambourines
dimensions variable - detail view

Lars Laumann
A night of a thousand Stevie Nicks, 2006
Ink on tambourine
25 cm x 6 cm
Courtesy of Air de Paris, Paris

Boris Achour
Conatus (Yes) title, 2007
mixed media
230 cm x 130 cm

Courtesy of Galerie Georges-Phillippe & Nathalie Vallois, Paris

Boris Achour
Conatus (Yes) title, 2007
mixed media
230 cm x 130 cm - detail view

From the vernissage - 06.03.08 :

A spontaneous performance by Hariton Pushwagner on the night of the opening.

Short biografies:

Magdalena Abakanowicz (b.1930) lives and works in Warsaw. She has been Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Poznan, Poland (1965 - 1990) and Visiting Professor at the U.C.L.A. (1984). She has had solo exhibitions in a number of international institutions and galleries, including Venice Biennial, Venice, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Miami Art Museum, Miami and Marlborough Gallery, New York. Her work is currently on show at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, in the exhibition WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution. Her Abakans were also part of the exhibition Monocromos, de Malevicz al presente at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid in 2004. In 2005 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award given by the International Sculpture Center in New York.

Caroline Achaintre (b. 1969) lives and works in London. She graduated from Goldsmiths MA Fine Art in 2003. Her most recent project was the solo show, Six Strings (December 2007) at Blow de la Barra in London. She has previously exhibited at the Showroom, London, and Mirko Mayer Galerie, Cologne. Her work has been included in a number of group exhibitions including Strange Weight, Martos Gallery, New York, Metropolis Rise, New Art From London, CQL Design Centre, Shanghai, Acid Rain, Galerie Michel Rein, Paris, Contropop, Vamiali's, Athens and The Unhomely, Kettles Yard, Cambridge.

Boris Achour (b. 1966) Lives and works in Paris. He recently had solo exhibitions at Galerie Cesare Manzo, Rome and Montehermoso Cultural Center,Vitoria, Spain (2008), Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois, Paris (2006).His work has been included in a number of group exhibitions including Vacuum, CCC, Tours, La théorie ondulante, Lieu Commun, Toulouse, Animations / Fictions, Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucarest, Dadada, Galerija 10m2, Sarajevo, Intouchable. L'idéal transparence, Museo Patio Herreriano, Valladolid, Half square, half crazy, Villa Arson, Nice, Notre Histoire, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, and La Fabrique: An expanded field of action I, AK28, Stockholm.

Franziska Furter (b.1972), lives in Basel and Berlin. She graduated from Basel Art School, the Sculpture Department in 1997. Her solo exhibitions include Fleeting here, Galerie Schleicher + Lange, Paris(2008), Drift, Galerie Schleicher + Lange, Paris(2007), Crush, doggerfisher, Edinburgh and Shades, Galerie Friedrich, Basel(2006). Her work has been included in a number of group exhibitions including Group Show, Elastic, Malmo, Nowhere is here, The Drawing Room, London and Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, Bordercross, Kunstraum Baden, Baden, Die Manga Generation oder die Kinder Murakamis, Kunst Raum Riehen, Basel, dark matter, artnews projects+schleicher+lange, Berlin, and Ausgezeichnet!, Kunstverein Freiburg, Germany.

Karl Larsson (b.1977) Lives and works in Stockholm. He graduated from Konstfack MA Fine Art in 2005. His work has been included in a number of group exhibitions including Periferak 07/Special Editing, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Robert Smithson, Fotogalleriet, Oslo, Come On Pilgrim, CCS Bard, Annadale on Hudson, New York, Emily’s Lamp, P.T. Studio, Stockholm. Larsson is co-editor of OEI - magazine for conceptual writing and art. His publications include No Love Lost, OEI, TMT files, Artist project, CAC Interviu, Message To the Reader, w. Frans-Josef Petersson, URI bokförlag, The Bat Poetry Anthology, w. Frans-Josef Petersson, OEI, and his first book, FORM/FORCE published by OEI Editör.

Lars Laumann (b.1975) Lives and works in Oslo. He graduated from the Academy of Fine arts in Oslo in 2003. He recently took part in the group show The Hidden at Maureen Paley in London. He has had solo exhibitions at White Columns curated by Matthew Higgs in New York and Screening, curated By Dan Fuller in Philadelphia. His work has been included in a number of group exhibitions including The artist and the computer at Moma, New York, Medium Cool, Art in General New York, Peer In Peer Out, The Moore Space, Miami, There is always a machine between us, Camera Work, San Fransisco, Entre Chienne et Louve, Le commissariat, Paris, The Backroom, Kadist foundation, Paris, The Thick Plottens, Galuzin, Oslo and Monumento Mori, Bastard, Oslo. This Spring he will participate The 5th berlin biennial for contemporary art, curated by Adam Szymczyk and Elena Filipovic and the group exhibition The Dulcet Clime of the Bedchamber curated by Nicholas Weist at Goff + Rosenthal in Berlin.

Bella Rune (b.1971) Lives and works in Stockholm. She graduated from Chelsea College of Art, BA Fine Art in 1998. Her work is regularly shown in artspaces like Marabouparken, Stockholm, Roger Björkholmen Gallery, Stockholm, Crystal Palace, Stockholm and Fotogalleriet, Oslo She also works with installation, performance and sculpture work outside the expected art context, like vignette-performence/installation for Swedish Television's art program Kobra, scenography and costume for coreographer Malin Elgan, curating and participating in TV3's Middagen and sculpture and costumes for film/commercials with director Jesper Kouthoofd. She teaches regularly at Beckman's College of Design in Stockholm and Konstfack, University College of Art, Crafts and Design.

Mikkel Wettre (b.1974) lives and works in Oslo. He graduated from the National College of Art and Design MA Fine Art in Oslo in 2000. He took part in the group exhibition The Square Root of Drawing, Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin and the Norwegian sculpture Biennale in 2006. His last solo exhibition, The Goblin's Raincoat, was presented at Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter,Svolvær(2008) and Galleri Kunstverket, Oslo (2007).


The exhibition is kindly supported by:

ARTS COUNCIL NORWAY