Into the Sunset

“Into the Sunset'' is an installation consisting of paintings, ceramics and metal works in which Daniel Oksenberg depicts the life of a teenager who flees to his imagination. Using various mediums he invents folk tales, tries to figure futuristic sights, and creates crafty science fiction and fantasy sculptures. By doing so, an overwhelming world is created; a world filled with claws, magic, mysterious scrolls, aliens, black holes, menacing motorcycles, and constant ticking clocks. At the heart of the exhibition stands the fear of desire. Fragments of reality and body parts suggest a symbolic interpretation of the relationship between one’s personal libido and the other’s. The objects in the exhibition serve as characters in a strategic plan of war, perhaps the war between genders. A part bat, part woman figure is presented decapitated, while a male figure of a boxer protects himself from a hit. The two are frozen in positions, doomed to be forever in an abiguese sexual battle as the boundaries between offence and attack is blurred. The tension of fractured sexuality is reincarnated in the name of the exhibition. It stands for the tacky image of riding into the sunset, yet brings us to the darkness of the night. Oksenberg paints two candles on the ledge of a window. One flame has died, causing a dark black smoke to appear, the other is lit but slowly brings the candle to its demise. The violence cannot be restrained, and the naive attempt to control our desires is an illusion.