OSL contemporary is proud to present its second exhibition with the Norwegian artist Ane Mette Hol. Working conceptually with drawing, Hol investigates the relationship between the original and reproduction. At first encounter, Hol’s works appear as ready-mades, seemingly indistinguishable from industrially produced objects. Hol, however, creates two- and three-dimensional drawings that reproduce the texture, material and tactility of objects. Her reproductions are carried out so skilfully that beholders must take a closer look to discover that they are carefully drawn by hand.
The exhibition at OSL contemporary comprises 9 new works in Hol’s signature visual language, subtly demonstrating how representation can be more than a passive imitation of existing objects. The exhibition opens 18 January and will be on view until 24 February 2018.
The relationship between the original and its copy is present throughout Hol’s practice. Precision and patience are the hallmarks of her working method: she creates copies down to minute details, using paper and drawing tools such as dry pastel, pen, pencil, and more recently, silver and wax, to recreate existing objects. She often draws on both sides of her works, gluing and folding the paper, including snippets of the inside or backside of an object. She includes the traces on items after handling, the ageing of the material, and all the imperfections that can be found after mechanical production. In the drawing Untitled (Silver Drawing) (2018) the surface of the paper, which is coloured with real silver, will oxidize in contact with air and moisture and the drawing will change its colour and qualities over time.
Through an interest in the concept of grey literature, Hol explores how objects undergo a change when they are re-contextualised, and how they obtain new qualities in the process. Grey literature is the term for published material issued by someone other than a regular publisher or a self-publishing author – often official reports and publications, including exhibition flyers and handout exhibition material. Ephemeral in nature, one could imagine that this class of literature would end up in archives, never again to be looked at, but it has become a way to search for information. In the drawing Grey Literature (2018), Hol presents an allegedly forgotten piece of information in a different medium, time and place. Referring directly to the branch of art theory that discusses the theme of the original versus the copy, Grey Literature is a comment on our constant recycling of what already exists. But as in all Hol’s works, the drawing process has added a quality the original did not possess – a kind of aura – giving value to a commercial item that we would normally discard as junk after its intended function has been exhausted. Put forward is a discourse on authenticity, where Hol demonstrates how her fastidious handicraft problematizes the relationship between modern manufacturing processes, art and reproduction.
Ane Mette Hol (b. 1979 in Bodø) lives and works in Oslo. She studied at Oslo National Academy of the Arts (2001-04) and at Stockholm University College of Arts, Crafts and Design (2004-06). She has exhibited widely in Norway and internationally, most recently at La Kunsthalle Mulhouse (in the echoes of my room, 2017); Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst (Condition Report, with Jan Schmidt, 2015); Angewandte Innovation Laboratory (AIL), Vienna (a ditto, ditto service, group show, 2017); Trondheim kunstmuseum (In the Collection, 2014); and Galerie am Taxipalais, Innsbruck (Living in the Material World, group show, 2014). Hol’s work features in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris; The National Museum, Oslo; Sørlandet kunstmuseum, Kristiansand; and Trondheim kunstmuseum. She was awarded the Statoil Art Award in 2011. In 2016, she was part of the WIELS residency programme in Brussels.
