Thought - Forms

Nov 19 - Dec 20, 2009

Christine Ödlund’s first exhibition at Christian Larsen, Thought-Forms, provides insight into an entire universe all of its own. In Christine Ödlund’s world, we sink to a biological-cosmic level that renders well-known perspectives null and void.

Christine Ödlund’s range of creative expression covers drawing, painting, video and electro-acoustic music. We see abstractions of magnetic phenomena, visual communication with living plants and, in the actual penetration of the living organism, a new synthesis is created between the observer and the observed.

However Christine Ödlund is no mystic of nature in the traditional sense. Rather the essence of her art consists of a scientific perspective combined with a wilful, artistic manner. Encounters such as these actively encourage a short circuiting of our expectations. Thus creating an opportunity for our senses to escape ingrained and preconceived ideas. New perspectives, new levels.

Central to Christine Ödlund’s way of working is synaesthesia, a neurological and psychological phenomenon. A source of inspiration in this preocess is the theosophist Annie Besant (1847-1933) and her research into the relationship between art, nature and the human psyche. Thought-Forms and the debut album Phenomena, released 2008, are based on Besant’s ideas concerning how music can materialise as colour, shape and movement.

Usually art is ahead of science, but through the years Christine Ödlund has integrated empiric research, e.g. a collaboration with KTH Royal Institute of Technology – Ecological Chemistry. She describes her method of integrating research into an overall artistic expression as ’simulated synaesthesia’.

Christine Ödlund’s idiom is that of the true open-minded artist, who with her complex creative expression peels away secret layers to enable a perfect encounter between our senses.

- Carl Abrahamsson