Exhibitions
slumber (liggende)
Bjørn Båsen
ADIEU PASTORAL
26 February - 5 April 2009
The subculture, whether contemporary or past, gives the opportunity to remove yourself from the common world and immerge into a society that suits your needs better. The subculture can be everything from the urban underground-life in the mega-cities of today to the secret life of the aristocratic society of old Europe.
Bjørn Båsen`s work introduces the concept of subculture into a personal mythology both visually and thematically. A mythology based on a decadent and deteriorating world, in which he treats the ceremonies and extravaganza of the nobility and bourgeois-society of Old Europe.
Båsen wishes to tell this through an aesthetic inspired by the sexualized cuteness you find in Japan and the masters of late 18th century painting such as Watteau and Boucher. By introducing a shiny surface or luxurious materials he uses the Wagnerian trick of seduction to lure the viewer to accept the tangy content. To Båsen kitsch is a source to sample from rather than to react against. Through the means of kitsch the artist wishes to create scenarios and sculptures in the twilight between the honest and the ironic. The work often take the shape of an interior installation, a scenery of seemingly authentical objects put together of components to give the impression of being taken from a place of historic and cultural origin slightly off-track of our own time. This idea can take the shape of installations, paintings and sculptures.
The element of the handmade object is important in the work. It gives it a tactile quality as well as carrying the personal touch from the artist. The quality also links it back to an old tradition of craftsmanship that ties the pieces into a historical tradition centered around the object as something precious. Materials such as brocade, golden ribbons and fur and indulging into the detail-making of the objects, gives the illusion of being made for a distinct purpose, but without providing the answer to this.
Bjørn Båsen, born 1981, lives and works in Oslo and Eggedal. He graduated from The National Academy of Arts in Oslo; Master of Fine Arts 2007. Batchelor of Fine Arts (Hons) from The Arts Institute of Bournemouth, UK in 2004. He has showed his works at Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Galleri Brandstrup and Stenersen Museet. Several collectors such as Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art and Statoil Hydro have purchased his art.