#507 Cognitive Dissonance

This work is titled after a cognitive bias about our problem dealing with the perception of contradictory information. For example, refusing to react to a disaster we have never encountered. Another fun example is the IKEA effect, which means that we tend to overestimate the value of things we have put an effort into ourselves.

See a video presentation here.

The works in the series feature stone imprints and a composition made with rulers and/or compasses, the instruments used by architects and engineers to divide space. The term social engineering has mainly been used to describe how socialist states tried to indoctrinate their citizens. However, it also played an integral part in constructing the Scandinavian welfare society in the 20th century. Extensive housing projects and health, education, and pension system reforms reshaped how people lived and viewed themselves. Introducing childcare and maternity care changed family structures and views on gender and identity. The period coincides with modernism in art and architecture, which the series references.

In recent years, the term has become relevant in digital security, political campaigns, public relations and similar fields that seek to influence individual decision-making by exploiting our cognitive biases. These are examples of areas where our judgement systematically deviates from a rational basis. But at the same time, they can be understood as descriptions of different aspects of human nature: stubborn, impulsive, emotional, safety-oriented, unforgiving, etc. They make us vulnerable and manipulable, but we lose our character and uniqueness without them.
All works in the series are titled after cognitive biases in belief formation, decision-making and human behaviour.

Speaking Stones is a compilation of paintings made with imprints of ordinary stones.

I see the stone as a metaphor for popular struggle and protest. It is the closest available weapon to the powerless. Throwing stones is a symbolic form of violence. The aim is not to overpower the opponent physically. It demonstrates defiance in the face of power by expressing concretely that the premises of the situation aren't acceptable. The stone speaks but not in a language open to negotiation or dialogue. A conversation means accepting the context in which it takes place and is thus always, to a certain degree, a form of submission. The language of stones is the language of mute matter. A form of silence that nevertheless speaks clearly and directly. The stone represents the resistance in itself from a place outside of language.

The stone is an entirely exchangeable and ordinary object that exists everywhere. At the same time, each stone is unique and has its own beauty and unfathomable mystery for anyone open to seeing it. This duality fascinates me. A stone is perhaps the closest we can get to a thing-in-itself, bound as we are to language. Sealed around itself, oblivious to the outside world. Simply existing. In a way, we can never truly understand. Infinite in its everydayness. Specific and concrete in its presence.

Res Ipsa is a compilation of works made by an act shaping the filler once it is prepared inside the frame. The works thus function as a recording device and give a statement of the event taking place while the filler was still wet.

Res Ipsa is Latin for "the thing itself" and is part of the juridical term "Res ipsa loquitur" (the thing speaks for itself), used when an injury or accident in itself clearly shows who is responsible, such as an instrument left inside a body after surgery.