From her studies to the present day, the search for possibilities to show the invisible or overlooked has been an ongoing motivation.
Motives are often inspired by day-to-day life and daily human interventions in nature and objects around us. The beginning of a work is marked by stepping back and rediscovering something that has long been familiar but do at the same time contain subtle references to art history.
Before making her series of wing drawings One Flew East one Flew West Magnhild Opdøl blackens the paper by densely overworking the entire surface with a graphite pencil. She then sets about erasing the graphite, until she achieves a suitable background within which to make her drawings. The surface is reminiscent of the microwave radiation from outer-space, that once haunted our TV screens. In the shimmering intensity of her meticulous erasing, we can almost see the shadows of her hands at work. The underlying assurance is for the possibility of flight. It is into (as opposed to onto) this surface that she draws her wings. With an emphasis on the wingtip – the greater part of the bird left unseen – we can focus on the mechanics of flight; the individual feathers that slide, tilt and turn, taking possession of the thickness and dimensionality of the over-worked and synthesised air.
Konstepidemin’s International Group X Galleri Konstepidemin
Magnhill Opdøl is currently doing a residency at Konstepidemin, and this exhibition is a collaboration between Galleri Konstepidemin and the International Group at Konstepidemin.
Magnhild Opdøl
Magnhild Opdøl (b. 1980) lives and works in Sunndal, Norway and is educated at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin (2002-2007) and at Nordiska Konstskolan in Kokkola (2000-2002).
