YNGVILD SAETER
CATHEDRAL
Yngvild Saeter's tactile and fascinating sculptural works are composed of a number of recognizable objects that refer to a wide range of visual expressions and subcultures. These include motorcycle environments, shamanism, gothic symbolism, punk, straight-edge and S&M cultures, biomechanics, medieval legends, psychoanalysis and neurological science.
These powerful hybrid forms are difficult to categorize, but tell a deep personal story of a near-death experience as a result of a brain operation that went wrong. At the moment when Saeter hovered between life and death, it was helmets and motorcycles that manifested; perhaps a result of Saeter the day before the operation being inspired by the female character in the Matrix trilogy who whizzes through life on a motorcycle without a helmet. In Yngvild Saeter's universe, the body becomes a metaphor for, and a hybridization of, protective armor, a warrior, an altar and a coat of arms. The shield-like sculptures thus express something disturbing and protective at the same time.
The title of the exhibition, Cathedral, refers to Saeter's death experience, which she describes as entering a large, holy and bright hall with an altar, coat of arms and guardian angels circling around her. The works in the exhibition refer to the fragility of life seen through our perishable bodies based on Saeter's encounter with her own mortality. As a kind of sculptural survival mechanism, they are a picture of Saeter's own struggle, where the strength comes from her own unique inner world and humankind’s connection to what is beyond our comprehension.
For more information, please visit Norwegian Sculptor Society's website. Here is also a video from the exhibition.
