Katie Paterson's first solo exhibition in Norway opens at Galleri F 15

Katie Paterson's first solo show in Norway opens at Galleri F 15 Saturday 28 May. The exhibition named Evergreen presents several new works of art.

In this major exhibition, Katie Paterson brings together over twenty works, from 2007 to the present, that transcend time, nature, landscape, human life, and the cosmos. The title of the exhibition, which is also the title of a new artwork, refers to plants that retain green leaves all year round, suggesting vitality and optimism – but also grief at the thought that everything is, or could soon be, lost. In the exhibition we are bathed in light resembling moonlight; we breathe in the scent of the first and the last forest on earth; we sense the colours of the universe from the first star´s pale blue hue to the dark reddish brown colour of the last light; we experience all dead stars registered by man since the beginning of time; hear the sound of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata sent in morse code from earth, reflected off the surface of the moon, and then received back on earth; explore every extinct flowering plant, depicted in a textile embroidery; and much more.

Katie Paterson, born in Glasgow 1981, is regarded as one of the leading artists of her generation working at the nexus of art and science. Collaborating with leading scientists and researchers across the world, Paterson´s poetic and conceptual projects consider our place on Earth in the context of geological time and change. Her artworks make use of sophisticated technologies and specialist expertise in order to create intimate, poetic and philosophical engagements between people and the natural environment.

Thank you to the Future Library Trust, Ingleby Gallery, British Council, the British Embassy in Oslo, Moss kommune and Viken fylkeskommune. Curator Maria C. Havstam, Head of the Art Department, Galleri F 15.

Press is warmly welcome to visit the exhibition from 26 May. Reach out to the press contact Simen Østad for a private view or for interview requests with the artist or the curator. 

NEW ARTWORK
Evergreen (2022)
Evergreen is an embroidery representing all the extinct flowers of this moment. The world is living through a human-induced sixth mass extinction. Plants set the foundation for nearly all life on Earth yet the number of plants that have disappeared from the wild is more than twice the number of extinct birds, mammals and amphibians combined. Evergreen is a collaboration with leading scientists, naturalists, botanists and herbariums, collecting together all existing imagery of extinct plants from across the world and across centuries. Botanical images have been drawn, and woven together in a textile work. The artwork depicts every extinct flowering plant, brought together in an embroidery, reflective of the Arts and Crafts movement, whose core characteristics were the importance of nature as inspiration, and the value of simplicity, utility and beauty. Evergreen represents a reverence for nature, and mourning for all that is, or soon to be, lost.

First Light (2022)
A sheer curtain dyed the colour of the first stars in the Universe which evolved billions of years ago. Hung in every window, gently billowing in the wind, the material casts the pale blue hue from the dawn of time through the rooms. Visitors experience the earliest starlight from billions of years past.

The Moment (2022)
A time-piece filled with star dust – the fossilised remnants of a time before the Earth was formed. The hourglass (which measures fifteen minutes of time) includes the most ancient material to exist on Earth, from a time from before the Sun, crushed to a fine powder and contained within hand-formed glass. Included is material brought to Earth from exploding stars as well as remnants from asteroids, fragments of lunar meteorites, Martian dust, and rocks which have travelled for millions of miles.

—there lay the Days between— (2021)
A ticker board which displays the number of times the Sun has risen since the Earth was formed. The changing flap display switches by one digit each day, at sunrise.

Endling (2022)
A one metre diameter circle divided into one hundred sections, each painted with an era of existence. Fossilized remnants from throughout life’s history have been crushed and made into water-colour paint. The earliest life on Earth begins at ‘12 o’clock’ moving through all eras of life and major extinctions, to the present day.

PUBLICATION AND ESSAY
Keys for understanding Endling and — there lay the Days between — are included as diagrams in a new publication made by Katie Paterson. The publication also includes diagrams of three other works: Cosmic Spectrum (2019), To Burn, Forest, Fire (2021) and Fossil Necklace (2013). The publication will be available along with the new essay Evergreen, extinct flowers in needle and thread, by Dr. Maarten Christenhusz. Both are available digitally in the press folder along with descriptions of the remaining artworks.

THE FUTURE LIBRARY
Karl Ove Knausgård (2019), Ocean Vuong (2020) and Tsitsi Dangarembga (2021) are the last three authors in the Future Library. They will hand their manuscripts over to the Future Library Trust in the Norwegian forest on Sunday 12 June 2022, followed by a conversation at Deichman Bjørvika the same day. For more information contact Project Director for Bjørvika Utvikling and Chair of the board for Future Library Anne Beate Hovind or press contact Kirsti Svenning.

The Future Library Symposium will be held 13 June at the Deichman library in Bjørvika. For more information, contact Jørn Johansen, Director of communications, Deichman.