‘Slowly, slowly, and then all at once’ at Kunsthuset Kabuso, Øystese is James Webb’s 25th solo exhibition to date (and his second in Norway). Curated by Sissel Lillebostad, the exhibition presents four artworks reflecting on the changing climate, on the melting of the Folgefonna glacier, and the many ways we seek meaning in the uncertainty of this time, through the medium of voice. Ideas pertaining to attention and belief circulate through the pieces, as well as feelings of sadness and curiosity.
In ‘A series of personal questions addressed to the Folgefonna glacier’, Webb inquires into the memories, experiences, and needs of the 6000-year old glacier in the mountains of Hardanger. In another work from the same series, the artist poses questions to a Palaeolithic stone axe. As a museum piece, it carries a complex history shaped by uncertain origins, multiple collectors, and associations with forgery. But as a stone axe, it opens up a space for the story of humanity’s deep past – a time when the stone was used to navigate an unstable world.
‘Duet with one singer missing’ is installed in the Ingebrigt Vik Museum. The sound piece consists of a recording of Olivier Messiaen’s 1930 duet, “La mort du nombre,” but with the tenor part removed. This absence creates a situation where the audience are privy to one side of a conversation carried by the soprano voice (Hanna Fritzson). In the park surrounding the museum is the work, ‘There’s No Place Called Home (Øystese)’. A speaker, hidden in the tree, broadcasts the song of a Bokmakierie; a bushshrike native to Southern Africa.