Jon Vogt Engeland

OSLO HÅNDVASKERI

In a time when work is getting more and more precarious, underpaid for some and overpaid for others, meaningless, unjust, stressful, alienating, and soon non-existent as a result of automation, Jon Vogt Engeland transforms Podium into Oslo Håndvaskeri.

The public is asked to either book an appointment, thus subjecting themselves as customers of Oslo Håndvaskeri, or pay a visit as conventional exhibition viewers. The display will also include new wall-based textile works by Jon Vogt Engeland.

Yet Oslo Håndvaskeri is not a form of therapeutic escapism from life defined by meager material conditions of labour. Getting back in touch with one’s own hands is a proposal for stimulating a reflection-in-doing over labour, that will, perhaps, be fruitful in terms of achieving new perspectives in relation to it and bringing strategies for solving its hardships, be they individual or collective.

—

Jon Vogt Engeland (b. 1987), is an Oslo based artist, the transformation is a result of his long-term research into contemporary conditions of labour. He graduated with an MFA from the Academy of Fine Art of the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in 2015, and a BFA from Konstfack, University of Arts, Crafts and Design, in 2013.