Modular Matter (2016)

Face mounted C-print
110 x 164.8 cm (43.1 x 64.7 inches)
AP: 125 x 187.3 cm (49.2 x 73.7 inches)
edition of 5 + 2 AP

STATEMENT
Where does one draw the line between Art (and Art) and Fine Art Photography? Inside the artistic world it may matter less but according to Norwegian tax regulations and Customs Administration the difference is both as precise as it is huge. An alarming 25% VAT is the difference between art and non-art; a dissimilarity that may very well decide the destiny of life. According to both, certain mediums have a much larger cultural value, but who decides this matter at hand?

According to the Customs Administration: Andy Warhol made non-art. Jeff Koons, Martin Creed and probably Jeff Wall as well makes no art either, since all of them depends on an external workforce to finalize their work. The Norwegian tax Agency have resolved this matter in another way; Jeff Wall lose out since Fine Art Photography is not Art. Everything comes down to interpretations and since the standpoint can be modulated as much as the word ”matter” might (abstract or defined – subjective or objective): then who have the right to make the demarcations Modular Matter investigates?

This work is a mix between the daily event every photographer literally experience: painting with light (where the word photography also originates from) and the artistic research of exploring a matter, leaving no stone unturned. It draws inspiration from for example; Barbara Kastens early work as well as Rolf Aamot’s digital, and Inger Sitter’s analogue, paintings combining them into the medium of photography but with the expression of a painting. By traditional values this work statically resides on one side of the border but depicted with a set of contemporary eyes the divider starts to dissolve.

Where does Norway stand in this question?
Who decides what art is and who have the right to do so?

Is Modular Matter art or non-art?