Dag Erik Elgin
Core Researcher
Dag Erik Elgin’s work is informed by an ongoing investigation into the history of painting, modernist ideals and contemporary visual culture. He has established a practice where the specific physical qualities of painting, historical analysis, questions of restitution and personal production are constantly negotiated. His projects engage in an explorative dialogue with the history of art practices, interpretation, provenance and reception. Recent projects like In Order of Appearance, La Collection Moderne and Provenir introduce text-based works and repetitive strategies as catalysts for exploring modernism's ongoing affair with current cultural and aesthetic representations.
In Provenir, Elgin flips the canvas, turning the site of provenance into the pictorial. While the dimensions of the labels derive from real labels, they are abstracted to the point of non-recognition, no longer able to serve their function as neither liquidators of the art-asset nor that of historical inquiry. They have, through a simple gesture, been naturalized into the picture plane. Purpose-built hinges leave just enough space between the wall and the painting for the viewers to catch a glimpse of the white overpaint covering the recto-cum-verso of the works, thus incorporating the potential traces of future provenance into the artwork itself.
