In his works Stian Ådlandsvik deconstructs the familiar and so creates a space for new contexts and perspectives. The artist conceives a sensitive interplay between self-reflection and the processual on the basis of sculptures, photographs, drawings and objects. He designs copies of copies, making reconstructions and experimental set-ups.
The artist has developed some new works for his current exhibition “Echo” at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, which function as individual objects but can also be understood as a series of complementary works. He is showing everyday objects that have been robbed of their traditional significance, their history. They receive a new meaning from the artist, which contradicts the laws of logic. He makes this aspect clear using the motif of the saw. Despite its divisive function, the saw provides the linking element of the whole exhibition and therefore represents a contradiction in itself. One of the artist’s objects consists of a pedestal from which he has cut out individual pieces, subsequently making a drawer from those pieces. Fragments of the fret saw are presented in this drawer.
At the same time, the motor of the saw provides the driving force behind another work: a spatial installation consisting of aeroplane barrier tapes. It is true that the artist has connected the objects optically, but they no longer present a unified picture; they appear removed from one another and reflect on the growing difficulties of definition. We have failed to notice that shifts and breaks have occurred, causing alienation and confusion.