MUTATIONS

Mutations presents an installation composed of a series of objects and video work at Telemark Kunstsenter. The exhibition explores the intersection of ecological, political, cultural and personal factors and how contemporary mutations within these are changing the human condition. As conversation in the digital space enters the physical environment, it begins to mutate our collective bodies, reshaping our minds and actions. This idea is presented in the exhibition in the form of familiar items: mass-produced furniture, shower curtains, football scarves, towels. Here these domestic objects are stripped of their familiarity, here they become mutants. Their forms and usual intent is changed: they are a product of our own shifting present. This exhibition creates an environment where global systems and present pasts materialise in objects of daily use.. They are comfort commodities that have been given voices via the internet and the voices are loud. This arrangement of things is a product of cultural mutation: physical debris born of digital production. Anton Benois’ artistic practice is often concerned with the question of material choice. The relationship between people and things is the starting point for his artistic exploration. Which objects do we choose to take with us and which to leave behind: this choice is essential both to personal narratives and cultural myth-making. His work is informed by his own multi migratory past, as a citizen and former citizen of Russia, USA and Australia. Anton Benois (b. 1979, Moscow) lives and works in Oslo. He graduated from Kunstakademiet i Trondheim (MFA) in 2019. He has been part of group exhibitions at Statens Kunstutstilling Høstutsillingen (2019), Trøndelagstutstillingen (2020), Trondheim Kunstmuseum Gråmølna (2019) and recently had a solo exhibition at BABEL Visningsrom for Kunst in Trondheim (2021).