Underskog

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The Waste Land
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That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
Has it begun to sprout?
Will it bloom this year?
Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
T. S. Eliot – The Waste Land
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Inhumation, interment, is rendered colloquially as “planting” the dead, with all the implication and dark humor attendant upon the inevitable decomposition and decay of organic matter. The idea of burial as a planting however, alludes to the mysteries of descent and resurrection. The image evokes not only ultimate submersion in the body, but also the fertilizing humus of psychic depths and the dissolution that release rich elements of transformation.

The third exhibition at Galleri Gravsted will focus on exploring the natural environmental balance, how humans not only are a part of nature’s recycling process, but also how humans destabilize it. Even though we have chosen to restrict our scope to the confines of a few Norwegian graveyards, the theme reflects on a greater problem that affects us all. The exhibition will focus on plastic and the problems that might occur when using new materials. Graveyards in Norway are now facing decomposition problems because of prior use of plastic in burials. This reflects problems experienced by animals, oceans and people all over the world.
Furthermore, we would like to investigate our ignorance; are we currently living in a way that will have a damaging and destabilizing effect in the future?
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You are welcome to experience the exhibition the weekend of 25th – 27th July

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On the opening of the exhibition; friday the 25th there will be a reading of an excerpt from T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land” as well as an Irish Wake in the gallery from 7 pm to 11pm.

Saturday the 26th the gallery is open from 1pm-5pm and there will be a Necroyoga class at 5pm-6pm led by yogateacher Torunn Lien. The Necroyoga class is by donation and all is welcome to join. Bring your own yogamat if you have one, as well as a blanket.

Sunday the 27th the gallery is open from 1 to 5 pm.
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The artists:

Johan van den Boom Cairns– is a Dutch Irishman, living in Siggerud. He has been an artist since 1996, with exhibitions in Ireland, Holland, Germany, Sweden and Norway. In 2010 he started the project «Pick a Piece of Rubbish» through installations, sculptures, video and photography he wants to show that the infamous Plastic Soup starts in our kitchen, our street, our graveyard.
At this exhibition he will show drawings from a project called Art4Trees. If a drawing is sold, he will plant a tree in Ireland.
He will also show some bottles from the Pick A Piece Of Rubbish installation called ‘Flaskepost fra Havet’. He has worked 5 seasons at Gamlebyen gravlund.

Sanna Hajnos– is studying ceramics at KHiO, and has worked at Vestre gravlund in Oslo.

Oliwia Beszczynska – is a multidisciplinary artist working her fifth season at Nordre Gravlund in Oslo.