Kunsthall Oslo is very pleased to present Connecting Dots and Knots – an introduction to a series of collective rituals, an exhibition of new work by Marie Cole.
Opening Friday 22nd September from 7-9pm. Exhibition open 23rd September-1st October.
Collective braiding workshop during Bjørvika Art Night – Friday 29th September 6-8pm
Kunsthall Oslo Rostockgata 2-4 0191 Oslo
Cole’s first solo exhibition in Oslo combines collaged, appliquéd and upholstered hanging textile works from her recent project Sensate Flow at Studio17 in Stavanger, with new pieces produced specifically for Kunsthall Oslo. The Sensates are a science fictional species, imagined by Cole in the tradition of Octavia Butler’s Oankali, to counter stereotypical portrayals of black female bodies. Expanding her practice from painting to textile work and performance, Cole is finding ways both to engage her West African heritage and to explore what is called pleasure activism, which begins with the question is pleasure a privilege?.
Cole describes the exhibition as an invitation to participate, not only in the improvised ritual of collective braiding that will take place on Friday 29th September, but in the search for a practice that can celebrate sensuality away from the objectifying gaze and oppressive narratives that dominate the contemporary image world.
Marie Cole (born 1996 in Oslo) has a master’s in visual communication from the University for the Creative Arts Canterbury (UK). She recently exhibited at Studio 17 in Stavanger and at the Oslo Negativ festival with the artistic/curatorial collective Tenthaus, and made her debut at the Autumn Exhibition at Kunstnernes hus, Oslo in the current edition. As part of the Diaspora Collective she has been involved in holding workshops for people who identify as BIPOCQ. She currently lives and works in Oslo.