Dazzle
Kirsty Kross & Mattias Hellberg
Dazzle is a moving, interactive sculpture and concealed stage for secret performances and statements that is inspired by the geometric “razzle dazzle” camouflage patterns painted on warships. As currently the public space is being increasingly monitored and controlled as well as artist’s rights of free expression, “Dazzle” speculatively experiments with alternative ways of negotiating and performing in the public space. In many ways, the form of "Dazzle" will be unclear and ambiguous like the current uncertain times and also be shaped according to context, participants and weather. "Dazzle" aims to experiment in how to use playful strategies to discuss contemporary problems and bring together an audience beyond the usual art crowd. In addition, "Dazzle" plays with new ways of collectiveness, which is important due to the rise of social anxiety and polarisation. In many ways, "Dazzle" could metaphorically represent much needed collective action and new ways of thinking to deal with the current times.
Kirsty Kross
Kirsty Kross is an eco-feminist artist based in Oslo, Norway, but originally from Brisbane, Australia whose practice centres mostly on performance, but also incorporates happenings, music, drawing, sculpture and installation. Her work is inspired by the trickster archetype often using alter egos or speculative, immersive interventions to discuss the anxieties, contradictions and uncomfortable truths of the climate crisis and its subsequent chain of multi-crises effects. Alter egos include the Coral Trout – a fish from the endangered Great Barrier Reef that also relates to the pre-Christian belief systems of the Eastern Mediterranean – and Kari Max – an abundantly affluent Pepsi Max addict from Norway. Kross specialises in engaging audiences and the attention economy through darkly absurd and often open-ended interventions that disrupt, reconfigure and re-energise social, public and/or institutional frameworks. Kirsty Kross holds a Master’s from The Berlin University of the Arts and a Bachelor’s Degree in Art History from The University of Queensland. In Norway, Kirsty Kross has exhibited/performed at the National Museum of Norway, Tegnertriennalen, Billedhoggerforening, Bergen Assembly, Høstutstillingen, KUBE, Tenthaus and PINK CUBE. In Berlin, she has performed at Clockwork Gallery, Parkhaus Projects and Galerie Crystal Ball, and in Stockholm at Supermarket Art Fair and the Swedish Artist’s Association.
Mattias Hellberg
Mattias Hellberg is an artist from Uppsala, Sweden, based in Oslo. He holds a Master’s degree in Fine Art from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. His practice spans performance, film, painting, installation, and costume design. His work explores obscure histories, toxic masculinity, and neoliberal power structures. For instance, Hellberg’s solo exhibition at Galleri BO examined Sean Connery’s 1967 visit to the Reichian psychologist Ola Raknes in Oslo, as a lens through which to explore the sexual pressures Connery faced from being equated with the hypersexual fictional character James Bond. Recent projects include a marathon performance at Galleri Van Etten in Oslo—a fictional reenactment of the original Banos factory, where so-called «partysvensker» once produced the popular banana spread Banos. In recent years, he has held solo exhibitions and participated in shows at Høstutstillingen, Galleri BO, Spriten Kunsthall, Porvoo Triennial, Galleria Rankka, Vilnius Art Weekend and more.