Remainder V

  • Artist: Matias Faldbakken
  • Creation date: 2009
  • Object type: Installation

On display: Room 086 The Collection Exhibition - Recycled revolution

About

Matias Faldbakken’s interest in countercultural expressions and conflict underlies all of his art, whether painting, installation, photography, or video. His works frequently refer to the historical avant-garde, above all the movements that expressed political radicalism through anti-aesthetical imagery. Faldbakken finds his artistic tools in such pop-cultural phenomena as newspapers, magazines, TV, video, and websites, and uses mundane, mass-produced materials such as spray paint, tape, and felt pens. In many of his works, Faldbakken explores linguistic dilemmas and representation, often addressing the extremities of free speech and issues relating to genuine artistic freedom.

Remainder V consists of a tiled wall that shows traces of washed-out spray paint. Linguistic expression, here represented by what remains of the painted colour, has been erased into a mute gesture of negation – wordless goo. We can no longer read the writing on the wall, but the dark vestiges of paint on the tiles convey a youthful rebellion against the world that is more expressive than words could ever be. Faldbakken compares the gesture of rebellion with avant-garde, autonomous art’s rejection of aesthetics. The non-verbal aggression that underpins Remainder V bears witness to the artist’s own struggle to be able to express what he wants.

Faldbakken trained at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design and at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Städelhochschule, in Frankfurt am Main.

Text: Andrea Kroksnes

From "Highlights. Art from 1945 to the Present", Nasjonalmuseet 2016, ISBN 978-82-8154-116-0

Artist/producer

Matias Faldbakken

Visual artist

Born 1973

Work info

Creation date:
2009
Object type:
Materials and techniques:
fliser, tusj, spraylakk
Material:
Dimensions:
  • Height: 240 cm
  • Width: 704 cm
Keywords:
Classification:
Acquisition:
Kjøpt 2009
Inventory no.:
NMK.2009.0101
Cataloguing level:
Single object
Owner and collection:
Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, The Fine Art Collections
Photo:
Børre Høstland
Copyright:
© Faldbakken, Matias/BONO