Digital Retreat Dot Com
Jóhanna Ellen

–
  • DKUK NO ct DKUK 20 of 21
  • DKUK NO ct DKUK 12 of 21
  • DKUK NO ct DKUK 13 of 21
  • DKUK NO ct DKUK 10 of 21
  • DKUK NO ct DKUK 8 of 21
  • DKUK NO ct DKUK 2 of 21
  • DKUK NO ct DKUK 1 of 21

Entrée in Bergen, Norway commissioned DKUK to create an exhibition within their gallery, on a busy street in the centre of the city. The exhibition DKUK Presents Jóhanna Ellen: Digital Retreat Dot Com temporarily transformed Entrée’s space into a new edition of DKUK, a fully operational hairdressing salon where visitors look at art in lieu of a mirror, echoing the space in Peckham.

The installation, created in collaboration with architect Sam Jacob, housed a series of videos and performances by Jóhanna Ellen. This new work could be understood as an ethereal or metaphysical encounter where the viewer entered into a digitally-created trance-like world.

Ellen’s video animations are built by the dense layering of decelerated pit sounds, white noise frequencies and film grains mixed with appropriated digital files taken from the web. The audiovisual landscape that she invites us into can feel both threatening and meditative.

During the exhibition period, DKUK also staged interviews with local art professionals, part of the expanding series of ‘haircut interviews’ available as podcasts via iTunes.

Exhibition curated by Lars Sture.

Jóhanna Ellen (b.1983, Iceland) lives and works in Oslo, Norway. She received her Masters degree from Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Oslo (2014), and BFA from Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts (2012). Previous solo shows include NoPlace (2016 and 2014), Galleri Blunk, Trondheim (2012), Gallery Crymo, Reykjavik (2010) as well as duo shows with Jason Havernas at the INCA Institute, Detroit (2013) and Matilda Höög at the Kunstnernes Hus, Olso (2014). She has staged performances both in Norway and abroad.