Window of Otherworldly Delights

As the final exhibition of the spring season, Studio17 has the great pleasure of presenting Kim Laybourn’s brand-new work «Window of Otherworldly Delights», which relates to the old-time notion of landscape painting as a window that grants access to unfamiliar and picturesque worlds. The work is intended to be viewed from the street, though the large window of the gallery.

The core element of the installation is comprised by four customised screens arranged in the form of a window. Played across the screens there is a looped 3D simulation of natural elements that are acting rather strange and forming an otherworldly landscape. Layers of the screens have been separated, which makes them appear at first glance only to emanate a bright white light. In order to perceive the video one must to look though the components adhered to Studio17’s window.

The video-sculpture «Window of Otherworldly Delights» is loosely based on a short story by Voltaire written in 1752 that could be described as proto-science fiction. The story narrates a meeting between human and extraterrestrial life. These two entities do not share the same sensory apparatus or concepts. They are literally worlds apart from one another, which poses a great challenge to the communication. Nevertheless, lead by curiosity and an open mind, they make a mutual attempt to communicate and learn about life and their place in the universe. In similar manner, Laybourn explores the unknown and imperceptible, that which cannot be approached with the human sensory apparatus. The work continues his longstanding interest in the limits and overlaps of natural, unnatural and supernatural.

Kim Laybourn (b.1988) graduated from the master’s degree program at the Oslo Art Academy in spring 2019, and is currently the recipient of the FKDS studio grant at the Kunstnernes Hus. His work has previously been exhibited at PODIUM (Oslo); Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo); Ta-da (Copenhagen); Galleri CC (Malmö); Struktura-Time, The Wrong Biennale 2019/2020 (Online); Supermarket Art Fair (Stockholm); and Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Copenhagen).