“I’ve lost the youthful naivety that leads me to think authorities should be torn down. I see it as an on-going negotiation.” Norwegian-born Gardar Eide Einarsson, who is now based in Tokyo, knows first-hand how different societies deal with authority.
Einarsson grew up in Norway in the 1970s and 80s, a time more focused on the utopias of community, and in which conflict was discussed less than it is today. He later moved to New York City, drawn to rebellious cultures as he always was. His work explores authority and the way it asserts itself through images: “I’m attracted to images that have a falseness to them that reveals that the images are not 100 per cent believable,” he says.
In this video Einarsson presents an installation from 2016 consisting of found objects: blue lights from Tokyo’s Yamanote train line in Japan. The lights were installed at the train line to reduce the number of suicides as they are supposed to have a positive, comforting effect. Read more about this specific work here: https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/how-blue-lights-on-train-platforms-combat-tokyos-suicide-epidemic The title of the Einarsson’s installation – ‘Distinct Functional Layers Help Establish Hierarchy and Order’ – is taken from Apple’s presentation of a new operating system (iOS7).
Gardar Eide Einarsson (b. 1976) is a Norwegian artist working in installation, printmaking, painting and sculpture. His work explores forms of social transgression and images for political subversion. His work has been shown worldwide and is held in the collections of the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, LACMA, Los Angeles and MoMA, New York, USA.
Gardar Eide Einarsson was interviewed by Christian Lund at Nils Stærk Gallery in Copenhagen in February 2016.
Camera: Simon Weyhe
Edited by: Klaus Elmer
Produced by: Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2016
