"New works"

Thorbjørn Lausten

Stalke Galleri

Vesterbrogade 14A

23.08.02 to 27.09.02

Press Release

Stalke Galleri presents an exhibition of works by Thorbjørn Lausten.

The exhibition features new light works, three rooms with neon, one of which was created for the gallery, and a series of paper works produced over the past few years.

The paper works are sketches or preliminary studies for works, light rooms, and light projections that primarily concern the relationship between light, time, and space—something generally taken for granted but that, upon deeper examination, reveals itself as complex. The light rooms use light sources that are either permanently lit or programmed to turn on and off at set intervals. This achieves what might be called a time measurement, the only concrete relationship one can have to time. It is these measurements or intervals, visualized with light, that form a temporal extension. A relationship to time, as one might have, is a subjective image of time, tied to our daily use of both time scales.

The exhibition also includes a series of preparatory studies for the visualization of data, part of an upcoming exhibition with data from the scientific satellite SOHO, which transmits data from the sun. This will be shown as large video projections when the continuous stream of transmissions is displayed over the internet—a project that builds on earlier works such as Light-Numbers (1991), Now-The Polar Space (1996), and Glimmer (2001). A work of this kind involves the use of highly electronic technology and thus refers to our current understanding of reality, which is largely based on technologically produced images. These are expressions of our so-called techno-imagination. The relationship between the image and a technologically linear function that generates the image is far more complex than we generally assume and naturally only hinted at in an exhibition.

Both the light rooms and light projections largely concern the visualization of concepts, placing us squarely in a discussion that touches on our culture: the relationship between image and text, between a primarily visual and conceptual understanding of reality. In the video projections, some of which are sketches, there is a direct relationship between data and visualization. Algorithms are used to visualize this relationship, giving the work a tangible content equal to the applied data itself.

The Artist of Light
COLOR: Behind Thorbjørn Lausten’s new works lies a deep fascination with scientific issues.

Thorbjørn Lausten is one of the artists who works most intensely on the intersection between natural science and visual art. His works are driven by a fascination with information processing and communication patterns.

The main focus consists of geometrically simple installations with powerful lights that turn on, off, or modulate according to a program, which, for example, may relate to solar radiation.

In his latest works at Stalke Gallery, we see simpler pieces where light, in the form of long, slender neon tubes in different colors, takes over a space and creates an intense atmosphere. The glowing light tubes, which can take on a distinct material presence as if they were flowing color from floor to ceiling, evoke a calm, meditative mood. Behind the works lie complex theories, but the results can also simply be experienced as pure beauty.

By Torben Weirup

Berlingske Tidende