IM INTERVIEW | ERIK OLOFSEN

Photography Playground München 2015 | 18.09.2015

5 QUESTIONS ABOUT PERCEPTION, NIGHT & DAY AND PHOTOGRAPHY

Q 1: WHAT IS THE IDEA BEHIND YOUR WORK WHITE NOISE?
A: I was looking for ways to express the thin line between what we call the virtual world and the real world. In my mind the virtual can be just as real and reality can be just as unreal. The installation is made up of layered mirror parts that have been laser cut to complex grids that reflect the viewer and the surrounding in a fragmented way, thereby “pixelating” reality itself. It becomes hard to see what is the real part and what is the reflection. With the surrounding space repeding itself over and over through the reflections. The spectator positioned before it sees his/her own figure fragmented into pieces and transformed in to a generic assemblage or as a distorted electronic image that is no longer distinguishable from its environment.

Q 2: WHAT DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO EXPERIENCE WITH YOUR INSTALLATION?
A: What I want is that people experience this thing I just mentioned and that they could wonder about their own perspective on things. Every angle taken while moving through the work brings a different image. In other words, there is not one sole reality or outspoken truth. When I would say something like: I had it all ready but ow any thread hour version first – it doesn’t really make sense but there is still some information there and perhaps it makes more sense to some people than to others. The viewer makes his own image out of the scrambled information. What we construct and absorb from our environment serves to increase the illusion that we dominate reality and makes us feel more secure. But just like a bothersome buzzing, we cannot ignore that this fact transforms us and our way of perceiving things. In accordance with this view, the relationship between man and architecture becomes crucial as this architecture designs the places in which our lives will be carried out.

Q 3: YOUR WORK HAS BEEN SHOWN AT VARIOUS PLACES. DO PEOPLE IN DIFFERENT CITIES REACT DIFFERENTLY TO YOUR WORK?
A: Every individual might respond in a different way but I guess the work is pretty universal, its not really bound to a regional political context or anything like that. The space, however is always different and so are the people and the installment of the work. Other than that one person might be wearing a sloppy dress and the other one a rain coat, the people generally seem to go for the “digital” and alienating effect in a fully analogue work.

Q 4: IS THERE A LIFE WITHOUT WHITE NOISE? OR WILL PEOPLE ALWAYS EXPERIENCE SOMETHING AS MISFITTING OR DISTURBING?
A: Huh? Hahaha… Out of the question! Sure there is. Art is great but lets not overestimate it. In the end people have to deal with their stuff every day, pay the bills, take their kid to the doctor etc. Haha, trust me life can be far more disturbing than my mirror work…..

Q 5: SINCE PEOPLE ARE ASKED TO PHOTOGRAPH, WHAT DO YOU THINK CAN A PHOTO ADD TO THE ORIGINAL ARTWORK?
A: Different views, perspectives. I once made a picture of a curvy picasso statue and managed to turn it in to a strict and straight Mondrian by means of the perspective that I took. You could take a picture of someone holding up her leg with a pink shoe and turn it into a picture that looks like a match stick… images add new meanings to everything… to daily life, art, news etc.

Thank you very much!

Photos © Stephan Ziehen (Portrait) and Miguel Martinez

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