Beginning at the End of the Tale
Magnhild Opdøl
November 03 - December 23 2009
The work in Opdøl's new exhibition, moves away from ubiquitous appropriations and enters meta-physical realms. These works are exercises in exploring systems and cycles of life and death and consequently allow the viewer peer into that gap between the concept and the form where her creative decisions exist.
Alan Butler& Lola Rayne Booth
The main body of Magnhild's recent work is an investigation into the nature of death. Everything has its time, after death all that remains is documentation or the memory of the person, the place or object. This new series of works deals with the idea of the end as the beginning, giving a new lineage to the images and objects that are created, where the past stops a new story begins.
Pencil and paper is for Magnhild a pure and poetic way to approach new matters, allowing her to get close to the subjects that she is working with. Drawing is at the core of her practice and each drawing becomes a finished piece not just a sketch for bigger ideas, which is not to say that they do not get developed into objects. All the work is seen as a form of drawing, from sculptures to works on walls.
The process of making the work is as important as the work itself, she engages with a subject to a point where she loses herself in the making. Engaging with the chosen materials that she has chosen to work with or that have chosen to work with her. The cat that was sick, the mice the cat caught, things that allow her to develop and create further tales for these new materials that were once something different in her life.
Magnhild Opdøl was born in Norway, and is now living and working in Dublin. Since graduating from the National College of Art and Design, with an MFA in 2007 she has been widely exhibited both in Ireland and internationally.
