‘Mono’ meaning ‘thing’, ‘Aware’ meaning ‘feeling’ and ‘No’ pointing out something an object possesses. ‘Mono No Aware’ meaning; the pathos in things.
In 2017 the experimental Berlin-based record label ‘PAN’ released a compilation album named ‘Mono No Aware’. The ambient album is filled with tracks like ‘Heretic’ by Oli XL, depicting what sounds like large breathing rooms and ‘VXOMEG’ by Bill Kouligas that starts off very intense but moves forward to these beautiful optimistic wind chime sounds. The album captures this abstract yet very familiar feeling. A feeling so large it becomes some sort of intense, scary numbness but at the same time there are these small sparkles of life you can catch if you allow yourself to feel. The album is accompanied by songs like Yves Tumor’s ‘Limerence’ which reflects on a past relationship, thinking it would last forever. The tracks with people talking pull us back to earth and reminds us that this album is exploring something terrestrial.
The music in this exhibition acts as an activator for the sculptures. Joanna Demers writes in ‘Drone and Apocalypse’ about the potential drone music and contemporary art hold to explore and showcase the apocalypse. Like ‘The Disintegration Loops’ – an ambient album series composed by William Basinski. Made by looping tape recordings, with an increase in noise and cracks as the tape deteriorates. The completion of the album coincided with 9/11. Basinski was watching the towers fall all while listening to the album, and decided to dedicate the music to the victims of the attack. Using his own footage of the towers as the cover for the album, giving us an insight on what feelings ambient music can hold for us.
Oda Haugerud often makes references in her titles to well known rock songs, for example “And this is how you remind me (of what I really am)” originating from the song by Nickelback. Oda explains in her MFA2 Thesis for Malmö Art Academy how “Rock is used as a metaphor, as it inhabits an acceptance and affirmation of seeing weathering as gain. The clichéd figure of the rock star and rock music covers is generally helpful to me when working with rusty, weathered metal objects: seen as strong and impermanent yet carrying the ability of its own self-destructive decomposition and undoing.”
Readymade was a term coined by the French dada artist Marcel Duchamp describing his own work in a letter. A term applied to art that wasn’t made but rather chosen, prefabricated, often mass-produced. Both Alice and Oda use “assisted readymades” in this exhibition, being readymades that have been modified by the artist. Showcasing these industrial, everyday, boring objects in a gallery room concretize the potential to see the complexities in these objects. “Too many keys means carrying around the weight of many places to enter. They are intimate companions that want to be held; they spin but can break, get lost and so on.” - Oda Haugerud.
Mono No Aware teaches us to pay attention to the ephemeral objects around us. Both the beauty in the object and its deterioration, making us feel the only reality in this world is change. Though a scary feeling it is an important feeling. The weathering objects reflect our own demise and it reminds us that we are alive.
'Girl Armour' (2024)
Alice Nordlund
Aluminum, protective plastic, metal rings, lace ribbon, polyester lace ribbon, embellished leather ribbon, velvet ribbon, rhinestone ribbon, pearl embroidered ribbon, furniture ribbon.
‘Please put your head against the headrest’ (2024)
Oda Haugerud
Two air compressors, two power transformers, metal angle, cable.
'And this is how you remind me (of what I really am)’ (2024)
Oda Haugerud
Power box shield, rotating motors, electric cable, adapter, bronze casted key blanks, key rings, liquid metal, threaded rods, mounting plates.
'L.P.S. (2024)'
Alice Nordlund
Perforated stainless steel incubator shelf, stickers, rose, peony, bridal veil flower, strawflower, limonium, lisianthus.