Lick Pick Kick | Maren Dagny Juell
September 8 – October 29
LICK PICK KICK / 08.09 – 29.10.2023
In her third installation about institutional spaces, Maren Dagny Juell has focused on the educational institution, more specifically the classroom. Previously, she recreated the gym in SQUAT and the office in Flexible Schedule. In this work, you are guided through a set of lessons, where self-assessment forms, testing and play are part of the exhibition design and experience.
Maren is interested in investigating power structures through languages that celebrates optimization, flexibility and progression. The work uses visual markers borrowed from institutions and systems that create and perpetuate these structures, and in the gallery space these are reworked into abstract sculptural form.
«The physical states of the brain are closely connected to the social posture of the body, the way in which they fit into the space of the community»
Morphing intelligence. From IQ measurement to artificial brains. Cathrine Malabou. 2019
Cover photo: Øystein Thorvaldsen
Stills from the VR game
CREDITS
VR content: Breach VR, Sindre Rennemo Grønvoll, Roald Høyer-Hansen, Joakim Snøfugl and Andreas Weiby
Audio: Soundcuts Ltd, Sound Design – Wilfried Nass, Speech Production – Adele Cutting, Actor – George Weightman
Interaction furniture: Simen Brekke
Supported by Arts Council Norway and Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond
The script that guides you, uses Maren’s usual method of blending quotes borrowed from a wide range of sources, including science-fiction, games, and popular science. In the same vein, the title is based on research in neurological science. In a study by Olaf Hauk, Ingrid Johnsrude, and Friedemann Pulvermüller (2004) fMRI was used to examine how the brain operates being exposed to passive reading tasks of worlds like Lick, Pick and Kick.
These action words activated areas along the motor strip that either were directly adjacent to or overlapped with areas activated by actual movement of the tongue, fingers, or feet. This means that when we read a word like Kick, we activate the same areas in the brain as we use when we do the motion with our foot.
Maren Dagny Juell is an artist working with moving image, installation and VR/AR.
Maren is born in Oslo, Norway where she currently has a studio. She received her Fine Art MA from Chelsea College of Art (UK) in 2004. Recent solo shows have been at Tenthaus (NO), Atelier Nord Oslo (NO), Trafo Kunsthall (NO), Trøndelag Senter For Samtidskunst (NO), Podium Oslo (NO). Group shows include Bergen Center for Electronic Arts (NO), Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art (NO) and Stavanger Kunstmuseum (NO) amongst others. She has participated in and made new works for various biennials including; the Riga Photography Biennial (LT) 2020, The Australian Video Biennial in Melbourne (2017 and 2019), Meta.Morf Trondheim international biennale for art and Technology (NO) 2022 and Art Encounters Biennial, Timisoara Romania 2023.
Maren Co ran the artist run gallery She Will Artspace from 2018-2021 and is teaching moving image theory and practice and Einar Granum School of Fine Art.
Statement
I work with Virtual Reality (VR), film, sculpture, and installation. With absurdity and humor, the works deal with new technology and neoliberal language with a focus on human adaptability and agency. I construct scenarios and narratives borrowed from sci-fi literature, computer games, and online informational videos. These instructions are used as a disseminator of knowledge for optimisation; especially chances of survival, mental health and physical fitness.
In VR, I investigate embodiment by inviting the viewer to experience how the sensory apparatus can be effective in a virtual and physical space at the same time. This is used as an analogy for how the body is incorporated into economic power structures through language that praises flexibility and progression. By activating the instructions on how to use VR as part of the work, I investigate how one can improve oneself, via instructions. The fragility of the body in VR and the inclusion of hardware and tech is included as an essential parts of the work.
