Dagbrudd: Linn Pedersen

The title of the exhibition – Dagbrudd, or Daybreak- implies a double meaning in its original Norwegian version. It signifies a pit mine, where minerals are extracted under the open sky. It also means the beginning of a new day, marking the journey of the sun across the horizon leading towards the gradual emergence of daylight from darkness. Both these meanings are apparent in the motifs within the exhibition, wherein consumer goods are depicted as geological formations on the floor, or serve as a tangible alphabet of nocturnal activities. 

Linn Pedersen engages with analog medium-format photography, where the documentary and the staged aspects find equal presence. Delving into the temporal, in her show Pedersen constructs the backdrop of her works in the liminal space between daylight and nighttime, often one most quiet and desolate. This allows for an exploration of nature as a character on its very own, alive and cyclical – and in a similar vein, a veneration of the objects, images and motifs placed within the nature scenes, presented as they are, standing on their own. 

The new body of work is a clear continuation of Pedersen’s established mode of examination, although in Dagbrudd the technical photographic experimentation takes on a more subdued role, allowing the stripped down tableaus of the objects to take primacy. From the paper cutouts of women carrying water pitchers in Vannbærerne (2023), an abandoned panda costume in Jorddunst (2023) to the cobweb and dust-covered toy made of Lego blocks in Bestevenn (2023) – objects are depicted in either found or arranged situation within a natural setting or a domestic interior.

The portrayal of disused consumer goods, vessels, and constructions is juxtaposed with the natural scenes the objects are placed within. And yet, the landscape is never a neutral background in Pedersen’s works – nature and the topography are indeed characters in her stories. One does not need to veer much further from such works as Hotell (2023) or Blå Junior (2023) to witness the manner in which the artist captures nature's portrait by subjectivizing it, while at the same time treating the landscape with a painterly sensitivity. Within the photographs, human figures are conspicuously absent, replaced instead by numerous depictions of eyes and bodies found across an array of various toy figurines, garments, and printed materials – legos, toys, knickknacks, cutouts, etc. 

Collectively, the figurative elements in Pedersen’s works coalesce into a relatively conventional and two-dimensional pictorial ecosystem, yet manifest as an assemblage of strangely vital and emotionally resonant companions. Different interpretations and narratives emerging from interaction delineate the intention of the artist to get into a dialogue with the viewer – one about the shared set of associations, memories, and feelings that are triggered when viewing the photographic works.