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Gardar Eide Einarsson
TOTAL CONTROL ZONE, November 18 - December 21, 2018

Gardar Eide Einarsson: TOTAL CONTROL ZONE

Past exhibition
  • Exhibition text
  • Installation views
  • Works
  • Artist Biography

  • Gardar Eide Einarsson
    TOTAL CONTROL ZONE

    november 11 – December 21, 2018
    Glentevej 49, Copenhagen

    Nils Stærk is proud to present Gardar Eide Einarsson's fifth solo exhibition in the gallery. Einarsson examines the balance of power between state and individual in his current exhibition: TOTAL CONTROL ZONE - a series of new works, which relate to the way the body interfaces with the state. 

     

    The exhibition title TOTAL CONTROL ZONE comes from the term for the strictest security level within the notorious North Korean concentration camps. The term can also draw the mind to a more general dystopic endpoint of state mass surveillance of the individual - a reality that draws closer with the advent of advanced technologies and artificial intelligence. In his current exhibition, Einarsson presents a series of new works which raise questions about how individuals relate to state control, sometimes desiring it, sometimes resisting it, sometimes falling victim to it. 

     

    Gardar Eide Einarsson's works are direct and uncompromising in their interpretation of the social dichotomies of society. These are brought into play through two kinds of images: associative images and images that are being decontextualized and converted into paintings and installations. 

    Read more

    The human body is a continuous motif in the exhibition as the site where repression becomes a lived reality and is represented in a series of five new paintings with the collective title Common Errors. These paintings, based on illustrations of common errors when firing handguns from a police and military training manual in the 1960s, have been penetrated where the bullets would have entered the target, recalling the real physical violence of the bullet as well as the pierced paintings of postwar-artist Lucio Fontana.  

     

    The anthropomorphic theme is continued in two other paintings: one based on a cartoon set in the Vietnam war depicting a caricatured fist of an officer with an outstretched index finger summoning the audience to join him in war. The second is based on a book cover of an inflammatory 1960s tome titled The Riotmakers where red splotches of paint merge with a white background cleared from information, which next to the pierced silhouettes, brings memories of abandoned human traces. 

  • Installation views
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  • Works
    • Gardar Eide Einarsson C’mon.... What’re You Waiting For? You and Me Have Got a War to Win, 2018 Acrylic, graphite and gesso on canvas
      Gardar Eide Einarsson
      C’mon.... What’re You Waiting For? You and Me Have Got a War to Win, 2018
      Acrylic, graphite and gesso on canvas
    • Gardar Eide Einarsson The Riotmakers, 2017 Acrylic, gesso and graphite on canvas
      Gardar Eide Einarsson
      The Riotmakers, 2017
      Acrylic, gesso and graphite on canvas
    • Gardar Eide Einarsson Japanese Pipe Boobytrap (With Charge, Detonator and Spring-Loaded Striker), 2018 Silkscreen print on hand painted canvas
      Gardar Eide Einarsson
      Japanese Pipe Boobytrap (With Charge, Detonator and Spring-Loaded Striker), 2018
      Silkscreen print on hand painted canvas
    • Gardar Eide Einarsson Common Errors; Too Wide Dispersion, 2018 Acrylic on wood
      Gardar Eide Einarsson
      Common Errors; Too Wide Dispersion, 2018
      Acrylic on wood
    • Gardar Eide Einarsson Brute Force (Financial Times), 2018 Dyed fabric
      Gardar Eide Einarsson
      Brute Force (Financial Times), 2018
      Dyed fabric
    • Gardar Eide Einarsson Common Errors; Two Shot Group (Yellow), 2018 Acrylic on wood
      Gardar Eide Einarsson
      Common Errors; Two Shot Group (Yellow), 2018
      Acrylic on wood
    • Gardar Eide Einarsson Common Errors; Low Group, 2018 Acrylic on wood
      Gardar Eide Einarsson
      Common Errors; Low Group, 2018
      Acrylic on wood
    • Gardar Eide Einarsson Common Errors; Group to Right, 2018 Acrylic on wood
      Gardar Eide Einarsson
      Common Errors; Group to Right, 2018
      Acrylic on wood
    • Gardar Eide Einarsson Common Errors; Two Shot Group (Pink), 2018 Acrylic on wood
      Gardar Eide Einarsson
      Common Errors; Two Shot Group (Pink), 2018
      Acrylic on wood
    • Gardar Eide Einarsson I HAVE A DREAM OF LAW AND ORDER, 2018 Silkscreen on hand painted paper
      Gardar Eide Einarsson
      I HAVE A DREAM OF LAW AND ORDER, 2018
      Silkscreen on hand painted paper
  • Artist Biography
  • GARDAR EIDE EINARSSON

    Born in Oslo, NO, 1976
    Lives and works in Tokyo, JP

     

    Gardar Eide Einarsson explores themes of personal liberty, belonging, and the ideological effects of propaganda through found materials and diverse media such as installations, paintings, and sculptures. His work navigates the tension between personal liberty and the constraints imposed by collective systems, often with a wry sense of humor. While invoking themes of subversion and anti-institutional critique, Einarsson’s work situates itself within a broader reflection on the artist’s classical role in society rather than a direct call for upheaval.

     

    By interrogating how images and materials shape ideological constructs, Einarsson reflects on the intersections of freedom, belonging, and propaganda. His practice critically engages with contemporary art's institutional framework, exploring how individual and collective identities are shaped within these structures. Through his nuanced approach, Einarsson challenges viewers to reconsider the boundaries between autonomy and conformity in a highly mediated world.

     

    Download artist's CV

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+45 3254 4562
gallery@nilsstaerk.dk

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GLENTEVEJ 49
Copenhagen

Tuesday — Friday: 11 am — 5 pm

Saturday: 11 am — 3 pm

HOLBERGSGADE 19
COPENHAGEN

Tuesday — Friday: 12 pm — 5 pm

Saturday: 11 am — 3 pm

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