Portfolio JON BENJAMIN TALLERÅS www.jontalleras.com contact@jontalleras.com +47 45204404 Jon Benjamin Tallerås (b. 1984, Oslo, Norway) recently graduated from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, but his improvised actions, informal sculpture and low-profile infiltrations belong to a tradition of urban wandering that reaches back at least as far as André Breton s photographic expeditions in 1920s Paris. Tallerås works with a variety of media such as photography, video, sculpture, performance, installation and text. Tallerås investigates urban space, exploring hidden and often non-used areas of the city. Using found materials to create sculptures and making transient performances that claim the accidental gaps and spaces formed on the margins of functional architecture. Parallel with his artistic practice Tallerås is one of the initiators and curators of the project space One Night Only Gallery in Oslo. Vålerenggata 17 NO-0657 Oslo 1
Finn din svai / Svaiar sidelengs 2014 Clotheshorse, pallet, security cordons, and more 90 x 70 x 150 cm Soner ut flater ut 2014 Pallets, posters, plastic tubes, cargo strap. 240 x 142 x 19 cm Steel fences, security cordons, and more 180 x 140 x 40 cm Game of Life II - Knust i Offentlig rom, Kristiansand Kunsthall 2 3
Temporary Dicplasements I-XI 2014 Inkjet prints 52 x 34 cm Unique Temporary Displacements I-XI is a series of analogue photographs documenting temporary sculptures made in the streets of Kristiansand. The sculptures are made by reconfiguring whatever materials Tallerås find on his journey through the city. During these walks Tallerås also gathered materials for framing the photographs, a part of a green bench, pallets, driftwood from the sea, a piece of the railway company s storage shed among others. Game of Life II - Knust i Offentlig rom, Kristiansand Kunsthall 4 5
Temporary Dicplasements I-XI 2014 6 7
Cracked Throughfare I & II 2014 Acrylic one, mdf, oak frames 69,5 x 102 cm Jeg hører, som bekjent, til gatens ætt, Akershus Kunstsenter 8 9
A Part of But Forever a Part From the Crowd 2014 Plywood, masonite, plexiglass, ar glass, fluorescent lights, kodak positive film 191x45x25 cm Jeg hører, som bekjent, til gatens ætt, Akershus Kunstsenter 10 11
I shall wear brown leather shoes, and walk along the street 2014 Inkjet prints 45x65 cm Edition of 5+2AP Jeg hører, som bekjent, til gatens ætt, Akershus Kunstsenter 12 13
I shall wear brown leather shoes, and walk along the street 2014 14 15
Walkin in the dawn of day 2014 Inkjet print 26,5 x 40 cm Edition of 5+2 AP Jeg hører, som bekjent, til gatens ætt, Akershus Kunstsenter 16 17
På gjensyn (Joh H. Andresens vei) 2014 Inkjet print 60x90 cm Edition of 3+2 AP Jeg hører, som bekjent, til gatens ætt, Akershus Kunstsenter 18 19
Betrayed by Destinations 2014 Video Installation 7.30 min loop Edition of 2+1 AP www.vimeo.com/jontalleras/betrayedbydestinations Jeg hører, som bekjent, til gatens ætt, Akershus Kunstsenter 20 21
LET YOURSELF BE DRAWN BY THE ATTRACTIONS OF THE TERRAIN 2014 Silkscreen 60x84 cm Edition of 22 A limited number of prints (three of each artists edition, 30 in total, numbered and signed or stamped) will be available for sale from Kunsthall Oslo at the fixed price of 800kr per print. To reserve a print at this price, limited to one print per person, send an email to thepositivevoid@kunsthalloslo.no with reservation as the subject, including the name of the artist and your name and contact information, any time after kl12 noon on Friday 4th April 2014. We will then reserve prints according to the order in which we receive email reservations, until all 30 prints have been spoken for (this may take days or years; we will post a note on our website when or if we have no more available. Prints may still be available from the artists themselves, but not necessarily at this fixed price). If you are interested in more than one artist s work, please list all of the artists names in order of preference; we will then reserve the first available work. If the print you wish to reserve is available we will contact you to arrange payment, and collection or postage at cost. The Positive Void, An ofsite project by Kunsthall Oslo, Møllergata 37 22 23
Errant Wandering 2013 Video Installation with bench, HD 13,20 min loop www.vimeo.com/jontalleras/errantwandering In the video work Errant Wandering, we are accompanied by a person exploring the margins of functional architecture: An unused area between the highway and train tracks, the space that has come into existence between an old and a new building. The film presents the person s wanderings juxtaposed with live still frames that portrait the places through which he moves. Several of the clips are so-called transport scenes that are often edited away so as to increase the momentum and pace of a movie. The exploration and discovery of the city functions as the primary goal, a feeling that is further increased by the looping of the film. Sparebankstiftelsen DnB stipendutstilling, Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo 24 25
Oppmerksomhetsfelt (encoded, stored and retrieved) #1-4 2013 Inkjet prints 39,5 x 55,5 cm Edition of 3+2 AP The work Oppmerksomhetsfelt (encoded, stored and retrieved) #1-4 consists of a series of urban landscape photographies where certain elements are concealed by the use of masking tape. The pictures present different structures: a concrete bridge with an imprint of the falsework that it was built upon, the traces left in the asphalt through the passing of time. The surfaces covered with tape have a varying degree of transparency depending on the amount of layers. A city consists of layers upon layers of history, and is constantly changing. The lifespan of the tape is limited. As the years go by, the tape will detach and fall to the bottom of the frame. The tape then leaves a knotted and distorted surface in the pictures, the works change, and time becomes a visible part of the work. Sparebankstiftelsen DnB stipendutstilling, Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo 26 27
Gående Hane 2013 Spread in Aker Newspaper the 26.4 56 x 40 cm Edition of 12732 Gående Hane (Walking Cock) was commissioned as a part of Groruddalssatsningen. The artist was asked to produce a work to emphasize Veitvet (a large residential in the eastern part of Oslo). In front of the main shopping mall at Veitvet was an empty pedestal with the inscription Skule Waksvik, Gående hane. The sculpture had been removed due to vandalism. Aker Newspaper the 26.4.2013 28 29
Etyder 2012 Inkjet prints 39,5 x 55,5 cm Edition of 3+2 AP Etyder [Studies] is a series of analogue photographs made with a ten-second self-timer, capturing Tallerås s improvised physical explorations of spaces that don t have any function for humans or that for other reasons are rarely used. Limiting himself to one photograph at each location, Tallerås leaves the final image to chance, and the artist s body describes a series of off-balance hieroglyphic shapes as he scrambles away from the camera and climbs and clings to the architecture. Lediggang og Omkringdriven, Kunsthall Oslo 30 31
Etyder 2012 32 33
Inntrinn, Opptrinn, Tristesse 2012 Acrylic one, mdf 19 x 220 x 30 cm The sculpture Inntrinn, Opptrinn, Tristesse, an apparently abstract form that is in fact a cast of the accidental oozing of asphalt down a set of steps on a street in central Oslo. Tallerås set up an unauthorised construction-site tent around the steps and spent seven days and nights building up layers of silicon to make a mould, encountering every kind of curious nocturnal visitor in the process. As Tallerås writes, The mistake with the asphalt looks like some kind of ornament and I wanted to archive a random part of the city and process it into a sculpture. A way of stealing a part of the city without stealing it, and a way of giving this small beautiful mistake its due attention. Lediggang og Omkringdriven, Kunsthall Oslo 34 35
Inntrinn, Opptrinn, Tristesse 2012 Images from the casting process in Grubbegata 36 37
Untiteled 2012 Scaffolding Dimensions variable The exhibition Lediggang og Omkringdriven (Vagrancy and Idleness) is completed by a major new sculptural work, improvised from found materials during the exhibition s installation period, that interrupts the architecture of the gallery and connects it to the simultaneously controlled and chaotic development of the surrounding city. Lediggang og Omkringdriven, Kunsthall Oslo 38 39
Climbing, Swinging, Leaping 2012 Video Installation 4.47 min Edition of 2+1 AP www.vimeo.com/jontalleras/climbingswingingleaping The short video Climbing, Swinging, Leaping, projected onto an improvised screen draped over security fencing, documents forays into the gaps and spaces of the city, where Tallerås s fluid navigation of his unorthodox routes is set against the steady flow of passers by. Installation view from the exhibition Lediggang og Omkringdriven, Kunsthall Oslo 40 41
Gaps and Spaces 2012 Inkjet prints, masking tape, frames 64.5 x 110.5 cm Gaps and Spaces is a series of urban landscape photographs, collaged over with tape that masks out everything but the incidental voids and channels between buildings. Lediggang og Omkringdriven, Kunsthall Oslo 42 43
Gaps and Spaces 2012 44 45
Unique Floor 2012 Linoleum, mdf, wood 144.5 x 195 cm The work titled Unique Floor might, at first sight, appear to be abstract paintings; in fact they are sections of the linoleum flooring used in the trains on Oslo s underground railway. The flooring is not printed, but made by scattering coloured chips over the grey base, so that every section has a unique pattern. Lediggang og Omkringdriven, Kunsthall Oslo 46 47
Casual Maneuver - A Step Away from It 2012 15 x 23 cm 112 pages offset print edition 500 The photographs in the artist book Casual Maneuver - A Step Away from It document almost one hundred unannounced temporary sculptures made in public space over the past three years. Steinum and Tallerås work by clandestinely reconfiguring whatever mobile materials they find on their journeys through various cities. These mostly gentle but unlikely and unexpected transient rearrangements of urban junk and street furniture recall the methods of visual poetry or musique concrète as much as they acknowledge the formal language of contemporary sculpture. ISBN 978-82-93104-10-0 Produced by Kusnthall Oslo Published by Torpedo Press 48 49
Casual Maneuver - A Step Away from It 2012 50 51
Andre veier #1-5 2011 HD video Installation 11,21 min loop www.vimeo.com/jontalleras/andreveier The Strange Fete (Énd), MFAPS (Malmøgata Fine Arts Project Space) 52 53
Andre veier #1-5 2011 54 55
HAPPINESS 2009 Marmor-jet (crushed marble) 83,5 x 1000 cm The sculptural work HAPPINESS is made using Marmor-jet, a material made of pulverized marble used to remove graffiti from the facades and walls in a city. As time passes the work dissolves in contact with the audience and the enviroment it is placed in. HAPPINESS, One Night Only Gallery 56 57
The Application of a Medium to a Surface 2010 Inkjet Prints 115 x 93 cm In one of the photographs of The Application of a Medium to a Surface we see a spraypainted black line across a brick facade. In the next image the black line is sandblasted away and replaced by a gray diffuse version of the first line. 58 59
Just a Kid Growing Up (NCS 4000) 2009 Wallpainting Dimensions Variable The wallpainting Just a Kid Growing Up (NCS 4000) imitates painted over graffiti. The color used (NCS 4000) is Oslo Metro s standardized color for covering graffiti along their tracks and stations. Just a Kid Growing Up, Gallery 21:25 60 61
This portfolio was updated January 2015 62