Oslo Kunstforening is excited to present Is this OK?, a collaboration between Oslo based Australian artist Martin White and London based Australian artist Matthew Berka. Throughout the exhibition the artists will create a performative and spatialized video documentary – the subject of the work being Oslo Kunstforening. The exhibition requires both that the duo will be working live in the gallery and also that the gallery's administration are present each day that the exhibition is open. The working and opening hours have been changed to Wed - Sun 12 - 5pm.

Artistic labour is usually dislocated from the exhibition format, and is therefore also dislocated from the public. Cultural labour on an institutional level, that is the labour of the people working at institutions, is similarly dislocated and invisible from the public's view. «Is this OK?» relocates multiple levels of artistic labour into the exhibition format.

The process of superimposing the work associated with an exhibition into the exhibition itself will bring the public into contact with both the labour of the artists and labour of the people working at and for an institution. This brings the viewers into a direct relationship with the institution, the artists and the exhibition; making transparent what is usually opaque. Relating as it does to institutional critique, relational art and new institutionalism, and in an era of heightened institutional consideration of public reception and internal power structures, «Is this OK?» is in many ways relevant, challenging, ambitious and experimental.

Martin White (b. 1978) and Matthew Berka (b. 1992) have collaborated previously on performance works using live video, video interviews and documentary techniques in a live context. White studied Fine Art at RMIT in Melbourne and completed his MFA at the Norwegian National Academy of Art in Oslo in 2017. In 2002, he received a post-graduate diploma in Dramatic Art from the VCA in Melbourne. He has previously directed theatre, film and television. White’s work has been shown at film and performance festivals internationally and he has exhibited in group shows in Melbourne, Malmö and Oslo. White had a solo show for Tokonoma at MELK in 2018 and has an upcoming solo show at Podium. Alongside his artistic practice, White has published essays and reviews, sat on award and grant panels, worked as a researcher, and occasionally taught. Matthew Berka lives and works in London. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (Media Arts/Sound) from RMIT University. Previous exhibitions and screenings include SUPER FIELD, Melbourne (2017), The Ecology of Place, Melbourne (2017), Image Inverts, Close-Up Cinema, London (2017) and Home Movies, Bologna (2017). In addition to his practice he has curated exhibitions and screenings, worked as a video editor and collaborator in theatre and film.