On a recent trip to Stavanger we were so lucky to visit Sandra Vaka Olsen’s first extensive solo exhibition in her hometown, consisting only of new works. Sucking Skin is shown at Rogaland Kunstsenter from Aug 27 – Oct 18, 2015.
Sucking Skin explores the technical processes of photography utilising a unique and very tactile technique. The artist uses sunscreen and her own body to make marks on the photo-sensitive paper before exposure, creating a new photographic image. The images have a haptic quality which ranges from sensual to slushy. The imprint of the body hinders the light that usually exposes the paper. Almost akin to how we use sunscreen to protect our bodies against harmful radation, the lotion protects the paper from exposure. The photographs are close ups of beach towels or computer screens with liquid on them, in danger of being destroyed. Installations of bent and straight plexiglass tubes placed in cylinders filled with liquid, metals and other materials, ornamented with eyelashes, like bodies, create kooky containers with references to the eye and the body. The artist posits the body as a container of matter, but also memories, sound, and emotions.
(from press release, Rogaland Kunstsenter)
Read a review at Kunstkritikk here (Norwegian only)