In Existing Conditions, Karilee Fuglem presents selections from the past 20 years of her practice, including some pieces never before exhibited. At EXPRESSION, she asks us to consider the gallery as a filter between ourselves and the outside world — a filter through which some things appear more clearly, while others almost disappear. Her work is born out of the architectural details particular to the space itself, the way air moves through it, and where its shadows fall in natural light.
Fuglem’s installations, sculptures, photographs and drawings are often visually subtle, a quality that demands us to slow down to fully take them in. She uses everyday materials to maintain a connection to overlooked areas of our lives that we tend to take for granted. Kilometres of fine monofilament make up sculptures that are almost invisible; strips of acetate and tissue paper are suspended so as to respond to any breath of air or to reflect the slightest glimmer of light. As Fuglem puts it, “things that move when we do affect our understanding of what we see by way of feeling as much as by looking, if only because the displaced air that sets them adrift also touches our skin”. She asks us to focus on these simple ways we interact with what we see, continually reminding us of what is unseen—breath, tiny particles of dust, drifting thoughts. “Every surface, from our skin to the walls around us, is reflective, but this natural phenomenon is so familiar that we need to be surprised back into grasping its basic wonder. And, between our skin and the wall, so much more.”
Karilee Fuglem, video of the exhibition Conditions existantes / Existing Conditions presented at EXPRESSION, 1 min 20 s. © NousTV