Text: Stefan Schröder

Chimney takes a specific found object, a heavy cast-iron chimney cover from a primary school in Oslo, Vahl skole, as the starting point for a monumental installation: the projection of a chimney on a one-to-one scale but without volume. The four side pieces of the chimney cover, cast in concrete, spread out from the centre in a cross-like arrangement. One cast meets a wall, which it begins to climb; another stretches to the plate-glass window, which it appears to penetrate, terminating in the world outside.

     The installation is a sculpture and a thoughtful intervention in the exhibition space. The breadth of the four casts, each seven metres long and two centimetres thick, is dictated by the basic rectangular shape of the cast-iron cover (150 x 70cm). The length of the concrete surfaces is determined by the proportions of the building in which the exhibition is situated. If the four surfaces were raised vertically, they would be of a suitable height to serve as a chimney for the gallery. This installation localizes the exhibition space in two respects. On the one hand, there is the purely geometric, sculptural intervention. On the other hand, a fictitious component suggests that a chimney might once have stood on this exact spot. As for the newly started Stedsvevn commission (2023 – 2026), Vahl School, directly situated at one of the three venues in Gamle byen Oslo, is a partner for possible collaborations.