If You Please
Kunstnerforbundet
2025
Kunstnerforbundet
2025
Overall, the sculptures in If You Please appear more like high-tech objects – one can easily imagine them as sophisticated machines – rather than imitations of biological bait. In this way, the sculptures' appearance evokes thoughts of humanity’s ability to breed and modify other species, but also of more speculative science fiction tropes where biological life is replaced by mechanical-biological hybrids. Much like Donna Haraway in The Companion Species Manifesto (2003), Baadsvig Ørmen reminds us that our relationship with animals is multifaceted: Animals are food, but also hunting companions and weapons, as well as allegories and symbols through which we understand ourselves and our values – in everything from rock carvings to animated films and fables. Are we deceiving and exploiting animals, or are we living in companionship with them—and is the latter even possible? These are the complex cultural and historical questions that emerge when small fishing flies become large.
Excerpts from Kunstkritikken.no / Nicholas Norton / 2025