Toft / Honerud - Rough Seas

Rough Seas is the title of an exhibition by the young Norwegian artists Nina Toft and Hilde Honerud in which the artists look at today’s dissemination of news imagery through the media, and in particular imagery of natural disasters as delivered by private users to the public via specific news programmes. TOFT I HONERUD here examine the actual news content of the imagery and propose the thesis that mediated news imagery is increasingly emptied out of its content in order to convey presence and authenticity.

At the same time, Rough Seas is a reference to J.M.W. Turner’s painting Rough Sea (ca. 1840-45), one of Turner’s emblematic works purveying the grandness of nature in its most sublime and romantic way. As noted by many art historians, Turner’s works are also a reflection and expression of man’s emotions. It is here especially that the works in the exhibition find its connection: the private experience and recording and the subsequent (public) release of images of natural catastrophes are (still) an expression of the simultaneous fear of and attraction to nature. Also TOFT I HONERUD have further abstracted, blurred and aestheticized catastrophic images, only that they appropriated them from the Internet and news programmes such as CNN iReport or other programmes promoting “citizen journalism”.

For the exhibition at Fotogalleriet Nina Toft and Hilde Honerud will present a video archive as the basis of their investigation. Located in the video gallery, the archive will convey a sense of being out of control, with different sound levels and loops putting the viewer out of balance. They will be countered by an almost serene presentation of photographs/stills taken from the same footage, confronting the visitor with a romanticised image of an event that hitherto appeared merciless and ungraspable.

The seminar The Integrity of Reality on 10 January 2012 will accompany the exhibition Rough Seas. It will examine questions raised through the exhibition and invite experts from the field of culture and journalism. The seminar will take place in collaboration with Academy of Fine Art / Oslo National Academy of the Arts and the Visual Arts Department of NISS – Nordic Institute of Stage and Studio, Oslo.

Hilde Honerud (born 1977, lives and works in Oslo) and Nina Toft (born 1974, lives and works in Oslo) work together as Toft I Honerud since 2010.

Hilde Honerud graduated from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (MA) in 2010 and from the Department Photography, Film and Imaging at Napier University, Edinburgh (BA) in 2004. She recently showed her work at Galleri BOA, Oslo (2010) and Goethe Institute, Gaza, Palestina (2009) and participated in group exhibitions such as, 4 unge kongsberg kunstnere, Kongsberg kunstforening (2011), and Vestlandsutstillingen (2009), Kids of Norway, Galleri Van Bau, Vestfossen (2009), Sympathy for the Devil, Samtidsmuseet, Oslo(2009), Bindestrek, Munch-museet og Galleri GAD, Oslo. Horerud has showned films at Pam/Perpetual Art Machine, Utsikten kunstnersenter, Kvinesdal (2009) and Nordic Art Express at the Temnikova & Kasela gallery, Tallinn and Fishfabrique (within Pushkinskaya-10), St. Petersburg (2011) amongst others.

Nina Toft graduated from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (MA) in 2010 and from the Edinburgh College of Art, Dep of Visual Communication, Photography ( BA Hons) in 2002. She recently showed her work in Cities Re-imagined, ROM for kunst og arkitektur, Oslo / Museum of Contemporary Art Vojdovina MoCav, Novi Sad, Serbia (2010). She has presented her work in group exhibitions at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo (2009), BotnikStudios, Gerlesborg (2007), GalleriFormat, Sweden (2004), Republic Gallery, Vancouver (2006), and a solo exhibition at Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (2005). Toft also showed her films at the 33rd Norwegian Short Film Festival, Grimstad, Norway (2010), Oneshot filmfestival, Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art, Yerevan, Armenia (2010), D-NEFF (New European Film Festival), Centro Cultural Montehermoso Vitoria-Gasteiz / Spania (2006), amongst others.

Nina Toft, Hilde Honerud
Rough Seas