Motholic Mobbles

Oslo Kunstforening/Oslo Fine Art Society is happy to announce Kaia Hugin’s first solo exhibition in Oslo.

Kaia Hugin was awarded Sparebankstiftelsen DNB NOR’s 2011 Grant for her video The Treehugger (Motholic Mobble part 6). The jury’s motivation read "...the artist's performance-based video work is exquisite. The editing is simple, dynamic and precise. The artist, who performs in the video work, has a presence that gives the situation weight and clarity. The artist clearly shows that she trusts the authority of simple performative acts, something that is also supported by the subtle soundtrack of muffled trees blowing in the wind and the squeaking of the tree bark. The jury believes that the video work is distinct and aesthetically very convincing. As part of the grant the awarded artist is invited to hold a solo exhibition at Oslo Kunstforening/Oslo Fine Art Society.

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Kaia Hugin’s exhibition consists of the two latest parts of Motholic Mobbles (part 7 and 8), a video performance series that Hugin has been working on since 2008. It also includes a series of photographs, the video installation POV and a found object sculptural installation of wasp nests titled Woodworks. In addition all earlier films from the Motholic Mobbles* series are on display.

In Motholic Mobbles we encounter a female protagonist; a blond character going through different rituals and what seems irrational actions, such as levitating, drilling her body into the ground, swimming through air in a frosty room, hugging a tree until it falls or hanging dismembered in what looks like a battle against bodily limbs. Motholic Mobbles stands out as a monumental body of work by the still young artist.

Motholic Mobbles is a surrealistic, dystopian and humoristic testimony to a sense of lack of safety, a longing for equilibrium and fear of psychological and bodily change. A premise for the Motholic Mobbles project is Hugin’s uncompromising presence in the films. She performs in all but one of the films, exposing herself to great physical strain. Hugin’s background in climbing and contemporary dance is a prerequisite for the choreographed and athletic appearance of each performance. At the same time the films also bear reference to B-culture aesthetics found in slapstick, splatter and horror films. The result is a mini epos where a sense of dooms day and psychological ambivalence is mixed with poetic and comical sequences, in a dreamy, fatal and absurd universe.

All the works presented in the exhibition are produced at or around the close surroundings of an outhouse in Kolbotn where the artist lives and works. A short distances production process where the proximity to the material used in the works, her studio where everything is filmed and post produced is an important part of Kaia Hugin’s artistic method. For example Woodworks is a nature given example of recycling where the wasp nests are made out of woodwork from the out house with the shelf made out of boards from the same out house, and that again recycled by Kaia Hugin as a ready made in the exhibition. 



The exhibition was made possible through the kind support of Arts Council Norway, Statens utstillingsstipend and Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond.

*Motholic Mobble is a constructed term used only in Kaia Hugin’s oeuvre. The term is based on the concept of motility, a term used within medicine and physics for involuntary movement. Mobble can be associated with babble, something inconsistent, and the motolic mobile point to a state of uncontrolled behavior monitored by abstract rules.