Curatorial Statement
Project Non-autonomous
Drawing directly from her personal experiences managing an organic turkey farm, artist Els Geelen’s recent series of paintings and photographs, titled Non-autonomous, redefines the position of the “bird’s eye view.” She evokes the conventional understanding of this vantage point in Utopi, her series of ambitiously scaled landscape paintings that rely on an aerial perspective. Yet, Geelen also alludes to a more literal characterization of this term, as the viewer’s gaze meets the birds at their eye level in the painted portraits of hatching turkeys and photographs of the young flocks that also comprise Non-autonomous. Geelen approaches her subject broadly, in intent and media, to portray an understanding of the human experience as something that is ultimately both uniquely singular and oppressively identical.
Employing printmaking techniques as well as painterly abstraction, Geelen challenges traditional methods of both linear and atmospheric perspective. Seen from above, as if in flight, her topographical landscapes depict the ridges and valleys of mountain ranges with peaks covered by snow or obscured by clouds. The scenes tilt and shift from material flatness to geographic depth as the viewer imagines flying, birdlike, above an untouched natural landscape. Here, fjords are confused with snowy mountaintops; shadows suggest forests and chasms, and washes of white assert the painting’s fundamental materiality as a two-dimensional surface. Geelen’s method conceals particular details of the landscape to signify a larger sense of the whole environment.
As with her landscapes, Geelen’s purposefully blurred photographs of dense gangs* of poults, or young turkeys, straddle the formal thresholds of abstraction and representation. The seemingly formless images provide entrée into a kind of collective chaos whereby this throng of birds, undoubtedly in constant motion and amid an imagined a cacophony of noise, is encountered as a single congregation of creatures. While the eye may seek out the recognizable form of a single chick, ultimately Geelen denies viewers the satisfaction of locating any one bird in its entirety as each blends in varying amounts into the larger visual collective. In contrast to the biological specificity that Geelen explores in her delicate poult paintings, these photographs strategically affirm the kind of abstraction consumers willingly accept, namely the general reluctance to identify one’s food with its living, breathing source. Geelen makes visible what often is invisible to most viewers and exposes these seemingly humble animals as conceptually and aesthetically complex.
Concentrating the focus on her subject with a kind of scientific precision, Geelen paints individual poults in their fragile infancy with visceral detail. Because of her experience as both an academically trained painter and committed turkey farmer, Geelen’s approach to the birds appears quite empathetic and personal. Where her photographic studies of these animals illustrate a massed congregation of beaks and feathers, her paintings emphasize each bird as a remarkable and individual living creature. Although the turkeys are raised to be slaughtered, Geelen’s ecological dedication affirms their wellbeing. With sustainability and humane farming practices in mind, Geelen’s delicate brushstrokes delineate a paradoxically peculiar and intimately beautiful portrait of these tiny turkeylings. Geelen’s paintings prompt her viewer to consider the relationship between the strange beauty of this animal and its fate as a familiar food source.
Taken together, the topographical landscapes, the abstract photographs, and intimate portraits convey larger themes of individuality and community. The title Non-autonomous implies a sense of dependence, an awareness that the individual exists as part of a multitude. Ultimately, Geelen’s works oscillate between seemingly competing notions of isolation and belonging in both art and agriculture, as well as offering a compelling look at what constitutes a meaningful existence from the poetically existential vantage between the whole and the one.
*A group of domesticated turkeys are referred to as a rafter or a gang.
Shannon Egan, Ph.D.
Director, Schmucker Art Gallery
Résumé
Els Geelen
Born 1969
Education
1992-1996 Fine Arts, Amsterdamse Hoge School voor de Kunsten, Nederland
1989-1991 Biologi, Universitet Utrecht, Nederland
Solo exhibitions
2020 Galleri Buen, Mandal Kunstforening, Norway
2019 Galleri Aamodtgården, Kongsvinger Kunstforening, Norway
2019 Galleri Mjøsvågen, Osterøy Norway
2018 Haugesund billedgalleri, Haugesund Norway
2018 Drøbak Kunstforening, Non- autonomous and other works, Norway
2018 Sandnes Kunstforening, Non- autonomous and other works, Norway
2017 Bømlo Kulturhuset, Non- autonomous and other works, Norway
2017 Haugesund billedgalleri, Norway
2016 Galleri Puls, Norheimsund, Norway
2015 Norsk Skogmuseum, Elverum, Norway
2015 Galleri Hagalid, Sofiehuset, Hjelmeland, Norway
2014 Gettysburg College Art Gallery, Pennsylvenia, USA, (curator Shannon Egan)
2014 Galleri Bergslien, Eidfjord, Norway
2014 Galleri Puls, Norheimsund, Norway
2014 Galleri Oz, Os, Norway
2013 KABUSO foyé, Art museum Øystese,Norway(curator Bjørn Inge Fallevåg)
2012 Galleri Syningen, Ål Kulturhus, Ål, Norway
2012 Hardanger Natur Center and museum, Eidfjord, Norway
2012 Galleri Rallaren, Tyssedal, Odda, Norway
2011 Hardanger Kunstsenter, Norheimsund, Norway
2010 Hardanger Folkemuseum,Utne, Norway
2009 Galleri Rallaren, Tyssedal, Norway
2007 Gjermundsgarden, Norheimsund, Norway
1994 Galleri Koningswinter, Koningswinter, Germany
1993 Muiderslot, Muiden, Netherlands
Group exhibitions
2017 Haugesund Billedgalleri, Haugesund Kunstforening
2017 CINCTOR, Art residency and exhibition, Romania
2017 Odda Open
2016 ¨Sjå¨ , Utne (kurator Kjell-Erik Ruud)
2016 Sommer utstilling Galleri Hagalid, Hjelmeland
2015 ARTBIKEfrihjul Landart , ArtInstitute Tjorn, Sverige
2014 Diplomatic Art, Helios Gallery Timisoara, Romania
2014 ¨Mellom himmel og fjord¨ Norheimsund, (kurator Kjell-Erik Ruud)
2013 ¨HiH¨ Hardanger Folkemuseum, Utne
2013 Amuses Mouseion, Amsterdam, Nederland
2013 HardingPuls, Norheimsund
2012 Museum of Contemporary Art, Recita, Romania
2012 Galleri Puls, Norheimsund
2012 Romanian Cultural Institute, Szeged, Ungarn
2012 Voss kunstlag, Voss
2011 Galleri Puls, Norheimsund
2011 ¨GREP¨, Fykse Landskapspark
2011 Garana Arthouse, Romania
2011 ¨Hardanger-Berlin¨, Eidfjord, Odda, Norheimsund
2011 Kinckhuset, Strandebarm
2011 Hardanger Folkemuseum, Utne
2011 Kunst Museum Timisoara, Romania
2011 ¨MNEMOSYNING¨, Budapest, Ungarn
2010 ¨Kunstløype¨ Mælen Landskapspark
2009 Hardanger Kunstsenter, Norheimsund
2009 Gamlebanken, Norheimsund
2008 Harding Puls i HT08, Hardanger
2007 Søgne Gamle Prestegård, Søgne
2005 Galleri Rudolf V, Amsterdam, Nederland
2005 Loods 6, Amsterdam, Nederland
2003 Kunst Kerk, Amsterdam, Nederland
Artist in residency
2017 Timisoaro, Romania
2017 Berlin, Germany
2015 Tjörn, Sweden
2011 Garana, Romania
2010 Berlin, Germany
Other artistic related work
2016/17 Styreleiar for Kunstnarhuset Messen
2015 Fungerande styreleiar for Kunstnarhuset Messen
2014 Styreverv Kunstnarhuset Messen. Styreverv HAKU (Hardanger Kunstskule)
2013 Styreverv Kunstnarhuset Messen. Styreverv HAKU (Hardanger Kunstskule)
2012 Styreverv Kunstnarhuset Messen
2011 Delt prosjektleiar Kunstnarhuset Messen. Arbeidsgruppa Galleri Puls
2010 Prosjektmedarbeidar Kunstnarhuset Messen. Arbeidsgruppa HAKU
(Hardanger Kunstskule),arbeidsgruppe Galleri Puls. Kulturmedarbeidar Kvam kommune (2007-2011)
Galleries
Hå Prestegård, Stavanger
Galleri Trolltunga, Odda
Homlagarden, Norheimsund