Olaf Tønnesland Hodne
Colours in the dark
11 March - 27 June 2021
Olaf Tønnesland Hodne focuses on stones, crystals, and minerals as material and medium in his work. In this exhibition he will be showing new carved and polished brooches and rings made of quartz, rose quartz, aventurine, hydrothermal factory-produced amethyst, factory-produced ruby, sapphire and opal, and many more.
Hodne's focuses on the geological process that the rock has undergone and for which each individual rock type shows evidence. The minerals and crystals show a geological history of the stone's identity. Hodne also questions that witch arises in our perception of what is real when the crystals have identical molecular structure in the natural and the synthetic. Synthetic crystals and minerals were already invented in the late 1800s but went into high production in the 1960s when hydrothermal quartz crystal became a major industry for making parts for electronics and lenses for cameras. Ruby, diamond, and sapphire suddenly became possible to make larger and cleaner in mass production and therefore infiltrated the gemstone market with synthetic stones. Hodne uses both natural and synthetic crystals and minerals in his work.
The titles of the brooches alternate between Shield and Window which has been Hodne's recurring theme. Transparent crystals are called windows, while the opaque minerals become shields. Identity languages such as heraldry and coats of arms are the main inspiration for the design of the jewellery.
Olaf T. Hodne (b. 1990) is from Evje and Hornnes in Agder, which is a former mining settlement. He is a graduate of the Oslo Academy of the Arts, and Hiko Mizuno College of Jewellery in Osaka, Japan. He has recently exhibited at Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall in Arendal, ROM for art and architecture, Borøy Kunsthandel in Tvedestrand, Årsutstilling 2020, Munich Jewellery Week 2020, Agder kunstsenter, and Årsutstilling 2019. Hodne's work is represented in the collection of KODE museum.