Utstilling - Radical Light - Anne Katrine Senstad

Radical Light
Anne Katrine Senstad
Exhibition open from January 26 – April 26, 2020

Kai Art Center is proud to present a new large-scale light installation by renowned Norwegian artist Anne Katrine Senstad, created especially for the newly opened art center in Port Noblessner in Tallinn, Estonia.

Senstad’s immersive light sculpture environment is an invitation to encounter the perceptive sensations of light and sound in pure form and their transformational effect on the experience of space. Constructed of neon lights, the unique luminal properties effect our cognitive system where the artificiality of LED lights fall short. As one of Senstad’s largest indoor works to date, the light sculpture is conceived as a monument and a matrix – a vast spectral light sphere which allows the public to experience being enveloped in the radiance of light of the highest spectrums when wandering through the historic former submarine factory housing the 450m2 exhibition space.

With a unique sound environment composed specifically for Radical Light by acclaimed composer JG Thirlwell, spatial audio arrangements engulf the space in luminous sounds in pure form. Senstad has collaborated with Thirlwell on numerous occasions since 2000, most notably Senstad’s solo exhibition during the 56th Venice biennale in 2015, The Vanity of Vanities.

The film and lecture program accompanying the exhibition opens an important chapter in the history of art – from the late 1960s to early 1970s – inspired by minimalist and land art and represented by a number of famous American artists such as Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt, Walter de Maria, Doug Wheeler and James Turrell. Films will include Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art (2015), Spiral Jetty (1970) and Sun Tunnels (1978).

The film program will begin with Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art (2015, by James Crump) on February 5th and 19th at 6pm at Kai cinema.

While the exhibition takes place from January through April during some of the darkest months in Estonia, the immense light sculpture illuminates the dark season of the northern hemisphere.

Read an essay about the exhibition written by prof. Andres Kurg in English, Finnish or Russian.

Anne Katrine Senstad is an interdisciplinary Norwegian artist whose practice lies in the intersections of light sculpture, installation art and immersive environments, photography and video, land and site-specific art. Anne Katrine Senstad was raised in Singapore and Norway, today she lives and works between New York and Oslo. Having studied at video art at the University of California at Berkeley and earning her BFA Honors in Photography from the Parsons School of Design in New York, she went on to study film at the New School for Social Research in New York.

Notable exhibitions include Seen Unseen at He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen, China, presenting her immersive light sculpture and color environment ELEMENTS II, 2018 as part of a major survey on contemporary Nordic art and Design. The installation is a continuation of ELEMENTS I, which premiered as part of the group exhibition Through The Spectrum at Athr Gallery alongside James Turell, Robert Irwin, Carlos Cruz Diez, Leo Villareal.

Her video work has been shown at Centre Pompidou in Paris, Haus Der Kultur Der Welt, Berlin, Beirut Art Center, Lebanon as part of Rencontres Internationales, The Canadian Museum of Nature, Museum of Modern Art Ukraine in Kiev, Dallas Aurora TX, Video Arte Internacional Buenos Aires and Eva Peron Museum, Argentina, Oslo Screen Festival, Kunsthall 3,14 and K4 Galleri in Norway.

Supporters: Viru Keskus, Utilitas, Royal Norwegian Embassy in Estonia, Arts Council Norway

Special thanks: ABC Motors, AkzoNobel, JAA Disain, Proplastik, Põhjala Brewery, Red Hat Group Design, Valge Klaar