Welcome to my exhibition at Soft Gallery in Oslo. Exhibition period is 15. January-15. February
The Dump I–III consists of three handwoven tapestries and a book about the works. The visual subject matter is based on photos the artist took of a rubbish dump in Main, USA, during an artist residency there in 2017. Sæterdal spotlights overconsumption and the global waste crisis, the uniqueness and traditions of tapestry, but also emotions relating to the value of things and their ephemerality.
«The rubbish in the heap is jumbled together and forms a whole; some items protrude while others are deeply embedded and escape sunlight. A heap like this has a certain sorting and logic, but it’s mostly random in terms of what ends up side-by-side, above, under, in front or behind. While the heap appears chaotic, the items are clearly arranged by natural forces. Gravity and chance worked together when it was created, regardless of whether the things were dropped by a grabber or arrived little-by-little, when tipped from dump trucks. What was discarded, together with the materials that were broken or crushed when something new was dropped on them, form a heap with air pockets and internal cavities.”