Blue Ocean Event

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Catrin Andersson's artistic practice is rooted in studies of processes, occurrences, and the structure of materials. She offers an analysis of our living conditions, present and future, based on research, events and climate change.

Blue Ocean Event deals with water and its various forms, such as flow, steam, and  ice; together with its property as a carrier of information. Our oceans is one of the keys to our future. It has distinct layers with varying temperatures that create the conditions for the ice in the Arctic. Today we are facing changes where the water’s different layers risk mixing and speeding up the melting: an acceleration in the process.

Ultramarine is a pigment that has traditionally been very expensive and was extracted from a rock called lapis lazuli, today produced synthetically. The pigment’s name states its origin, which is beyond the seas. In the same way, Andersson's references are beyond our fascination for the sea ice’s surface and slightly beyond our temporal horizon. Then we must see that the consequences of how we act today will show themselves in the near future, they will be visible to future generations. Legend I and Legend II and Influencer(2020) are created in symbiosis and are imprints and mirror images of each other. The works come about when water rushes over paper surfaces dense with coal and pigment, similar to the movements of hot and cold layers under the Arctic ice. Scientific models of these changes are foreboding. Their sign catalogue, called Legend and the square format of the works, is similar to the grid on maps of the world's oceans, where regular and future paths of ocean currents are described.

The works In Flow, Open Blue and Blue Event I-V (2020) are made of pigment sludge and residues from the exhibition's other works series made of coal and ultramarine blue pigment. The coal and pigment sludge from the process of making a series of work stains and makes an impression in the other works in the exhibition. In the same way that our actions today make echoes/waves in the future.

The paper surfaces have traces of circular movements. They are created by the dance of a compass, similar to the ones used by seafarers when reading maps. In Flow and Open Blue are like close-ups where the entire surface is covered, and we quickly get lost in the movement and repetitions. The series Blue Event 1-5 implies how accelerated our impact on the climate is as highlighted by science and researchers. It is these movements that the perfect circle in Open Blue suggests. A Blue Ocean Event where the layers of the world's oceans are open and are mixed in a point of no return, where we are facing a completely new and overturning era.

Ola Gustafsson
September 2020