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
2020 Lørenskog Kunstforening
2019 Galleri Aamodtgården, Kongsvinger Kunstforening
2019 Galleri Mjøsvågen
2018 Drøbak Kunstforening
2018 Sandnes Kunstforening
2017 Bømlo Kunstforening
2016 Galleri Puls, Norheimsund
2015 Norsk Skogmuseum, Elverum
2015 Galleri Hagalid, Sofiehuset, Hjelmeland
2014 Schmucker Art Gallery, Gettysburg, USA
2014 Galleri Bergslien, Eidfjord
2014 Galleri Puls, Norheimsund
2014 Galleri Oz, Os
2013 KABUSO foyé, Kunstmuseum Øystese
2012 Galleri Syningen, Ål Kulturhus, Ål
2012 Hardanger Natursenter og museum, Eidfjord
2012 Galleri Rallaren, Tyssedal, Odda
2011 Hardanger Kunstsenter, Norheimsund
2010 Hardanger Folkemuseum, Utne
2009 Galleri Rallaren, Tyssedal
Group exhibitions
2020 Haustutstilling, Haugesund Biletgalleri
2020 Galleri Mjøsvågen, Osterøy Kunstlag
2019 Haugesund biletgalleri
2019 Bienala Albastra, Brasov, Romania
2018 Haugesund biletgalleri
2018 Face to Face, Cinctor, Romania
2017 Haugesund biletgalleri
2017 Hardanger Open, Odda
2016 ¨Sjå¨ , Utne
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
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
2018 Cinctor, Romania
2017 Hardanger kunstnarleigheit Berlin Tyskland
2017 Timisoaro, Romania
2015 Tjörn, Sverige
2011 Garana, Romania
2010 Hardanger kunstnarleigheit Berlin Tyskland
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