The British theater reformer Edward Gordon Craig wrote a piece for the stage 1913 called "The Steps”, that is considered part of the ”Theater of Silence”, a concept which puts an emphasis on everything but the spoken word as means for creating the drama: the non verbal communication, the light, the stage, the props. In ”The Steps”, the staircase is made the protagonist of the performance.
In the exhibition ”From One to Another”, the story consists of a programmed blind and a rebuilt turntable. The composed pulse and rhythm exhibited by the objects establish relationships similar to those the actor creates with co-actors and spectators, but here based on sound and movement. The exhibition space is treated as a stage where spatial arrangements, movements, sounds and time form the fundamental elements of the drama.
Many of Ola Nilsson’s works and objects seem to have been left to their own demise, turning them into archaeological artefacts that evoke a sense of life that lingers in the environment, or in the thing itself. As if the objects retain a memory of human touch, use, or purpose. The absence of the human figure calls on the viewer to imagine the one who once interacted with the objects. In this way Nilsson joins the tradition of using negative space as a means of artistic expression, not in a physical meaning but by letting the presence emerge within ourselves as a state of mind, a reminder, or a memory of what once where.
Selected Solo
Exhibitions
Selected Group Exhibitions
Selected Grants
and Awards