Solo show at Telemark Kunstsenter 15 August – 11 September 2009.

“It is what it is until you are right” ( when somebody decides to pay for the spotlight )

This show consists of works from 2005-2009, that all, one way or the other winks at different marketing strategies and business culture.

Curated by Jan Christensen

WORK INFO & DESCRIPTION

Klaxxon 2009

approx. 750 12 cm x 12 pieces of MDF, acryl 192 cm x 665 cm

aXXo is the Internet alias of an individual allegedly harassed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for copyright infringement. aXXo became popular for releasing commercial DVD movies on the Internet as free downloads, through peer-to-peer-file sharing protocols such as BitTorrent, with file sizes at approximately 700 MB – the same size as a Compact Disc.
On December 15, 2008, aXXo’s thousandth movie was uploaded, and he stopped uploading files in 2009.
aXXo files attract a large following, with over a million users downloading aXXo files each month.

Klaxxon is the new, supposed heir to the famous bittorrent uploading legend aXXo.
His name was choosen so that when people search for “aXXo”, his torrents will appear also.

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Artist Self-portraits, Joyo Art Salon Co. Fujian China 2006
Oil on canvas, 40 cm x 30 cm

The artist asked the artists at one of China`s many art painting factories, known for copying old masters in a Ford assembly line matter, if they would paint their own portraits, in any style they wanted.

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It Is What It Is Until You Get It Right ( When Somebody Decides to Pay for the Spotlight )
2009 Steel
251 cm x 63 cm. x 53 cm
A Norwegian, Johan Vaaler (1866–1910), has erroneously been identified as the inventor of the paper clip, with patents granted in Germany and USA. He was granted patents in Germany and in the United States (1901) for a paper clip of similar design, but less functional and practical, because it lacked the last turn of the wire. His version was never manufactured and never marketed, because the superior Gem was already available.
Long after Vaaler’s death his countrymen created a national myth based on the false assumption that the paper clip was invented by an unrecognised Norwegian genius. Norwegian dictionaries since the 1950s have mentioned Vaaler as the inventor of the paper clip and that myth later found its way into international dictionaries and much of the international literature on paper clips.

The originator of the Norwegian paper clip myth was Halvard Foss of the national patent agency who visited Germany in the 1920s to register Norwegian patents in that country. He came across Vaaler’s patent, but failed to detect that it was not the same as the then-common Gem-type clip. In the report of the first fifty years of the patent agency, he wrote an article in which he proclaimed Vaaler to be the inventor of the common paper clip.

Authors of books and articles on the history of Norwegian technology eagerly seized it to make a thin story more substantial, and in 1989 a giant paper clip, almost 7 meters high, was erected on the campus of a commercial college near Oslo in honour of Vaaler. But this monument shows a Gem-type clip, not the one patented by Vaaler.

This oversized bent out of shape gem, is a tribute to Halvard Foss, for his remarkable marketing abilities.

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Global Top 100 (100 pieces of corporate ephemera) 2009
Chair, desk, corporate souvenirs
(The work is being constantly developed, according to Forbes` list over the worlds` biggest companies )

Vexol SA, 2007

Teak shelf, custom patches, coat.

A work based on the information that surfaced when Statoil and Hydro merged, on accounts of channeling bribes to obtain oil fields in Libya.

Taking Care of Business #1 + #2 (Norwegian oil + slavetrade history) 2009

Collage, postcards 40 cm x 50 cm.

This is an on-going series of works that illustrate historical events, through postcards. The events will reveal themselves if you Google them all together.

SPUR M, 2006

Pencil on paper 76,5 cm x 56 cm.

From a series of pencil drawings based on selected spam emails in my inbox, 2006.

Tags: art, axxo, binders, Bjørn-Kowalski Hansen, design, Jan Christensen, klaxxon, Kowalskiness, kunst, Norge, Norway, Skien, skulptur, stål, Telemark Kunstnersenter