The title HEINZERLING reflects the duality of the artist’s Norwegian/German background by using the surname in his passport. He has taken an opportunity to play with his dual identity in regards to his work. How do we all relate to our surroundings: be it linguistically, visually or environmentally-specific?

The works shown in this exhibition reflect the artist’s interest in surfaces, the formal shape and design of objects, and how these in turn affect us and influence the established culture. Holen works with technologies that define modern industry and our environment, from transport and communication to industrial food production and security systems. He activates traditional materials such as metal, marble and glass with new techniques like 3D printing, water cutting, together with the use of industrial spare parts. Thus the artist plays with the intersection of traditional and familiar elements, technological innovations and craftsmanship, as well as functional and ornamental qualities. What is at stake in these encounters between humanity and our imprint on the world?

Holen’s work expresses a sensitivity for the steadily growing identification between man and machine, body and consumer culture, where objects define us as much as we define them. His work reflects on how these borders are shifted and extended, manipulated and stretched, in both the technological and social spheres, where they encounter new ontologies. Consumer objects like kettles and water coolers are meticulously and clinically dissected; car headlights take on anthropomorphical qualities; CT-scanner components become futuristic portals to a new reality.

A generic, mass-produced rim is scanned and recreated as a series of monumental wooden sculptures, painted in Tyrilin, a wood stain widely used on cabins in Norway. This series of sculptures blends diverse elements - generic and unique, tactile, soft and hard - recalling Norway’s woodworking traditions, in which organic forms arise from solid wood. While some of the sculptures will be shown at Kunstnernes Hus, one has been installed on the outside of Holen’s family cabin in Kvam, Gudbrandsdalen, as a site-specific work, merging with its exterior.

The exhibition will travel to Stavanger Kunsthall where it will be shown between May 16th – July 28th, 2019. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Hatje Cantz, with texts by Matias Faldbakken and Armin Zweite.