Catalogue > At random

Technology?s physical past is fading. It is carefully covering its trails, leaving only behind negative connotations of its former, inner self; boards, circuitry and cables ? in essence its vital organs. These are present only in niche-fiction and reports on devious activities. Simultaneously, we are pouring ourselves into a collective stream of information, be it in the form of text, video, images, symbols and game avatars. We look to escape our shortcomings, to live vicariously through fictional characters ? we maneuver a space in which we are the compressed versions of each other. It is the convergence of our self- created fictional worlds with the external collective one, in the form of our preferred ways of communication. Material drawn from the different sources of our ?collective stream of information? is the basis of short films. It?s a collage of established narrative techniques, collected personal data and taped conversations. I reach out to an intimate social environment and retrieve a subjective visual record. Any documentation will be inherently flawed, extracting only some parts of a whole. The films organize diverse and dissonant elements in a cinematic dynamic that contracts. We see a small group conspiring together, concerned about shaping an object that is not yet present. It is the absence of a device or an idea. There is a strong dramaturgy to their rituals, like believers playing out a strict, scripted set of actions. By devotion and affection they seem to be wafted on into a world of enclosed private experience. It is where the mundane hobbyist encounters the darker parts of his domain. The tactile ? the construction and assembling of objects ? becomes the backdrop for a continuous deciphering of messages. The viewer is torn between a media-constructed paranoia and the comfort of the fictitious adventure ? the presence of technology is lost in science-fiction. It dissolves into an external image-space, one that exists both as a contemporary and as a distant memory. It represents a contemplative comfort-zone, turning to the realm of the private dream. This is the forensic scene. This is the place to investigate. The recurring narratives are reaching for this space, through the alienation of the familiar, by the means of forgotten devices.

Oscar Qvale (b. 1985) lives and works in Oslo. He earned his BFA degree from the Bergen National Academy of the Arts and Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig (HGB), specializing in photography. In 2012 he received his masters degree from the Oslo National Academy of Fine Art.