Oslo - Art

The artist's series of works is based on travel and impressions along the canals of Amsterdam. Infused with a harmonious blend of fine art and impressionistic flair, my canvas brings...

Through my artwork, I sought to capture the timeless allure of elegance and introspection. The rich oil on paper dance to create a figure robed in a coat radiating warmth and mystery...

In this painting, I infused the vitality of nature and domestic tranquility through bold strokes and vibrant gouache colors. The rooster stands proudly, symbolizing wakefulness and t...

In this quartet, I’ve sought to capture the essence of autumn as glimpsed through windows of time and emotion. Each panel breathes life into the transformation of nature, using oils ...

Controversial hero in Scandinavia-Ole close your eyes. The image of the Sandman can have both a positive connotation , he is a kind creature who calms naughty children and brings goo...

In this oil on paper creation, I've delved deep into the essence of freedom and vulnerability. I've depicted the raw, natural beauty of the human form intertwined with ethereal grace...

In creating this painting, I embraced the beauty of resilience and renewal found in nature. The acrylic and oil pastel blend to weave a dance of colors, capturing the subtle textures...

In this piece, I've woven layers of acrylic and ink to capture a joyful moment in time, where youthful exuberance shines through a child's delighted expression. Marvel at the fine ar...

The Micro&Macro series is an abstract and semi-abstract works where the main focus is on form , energy expressed through form, movement and color. When the artist was working on the...

Grass with white leaves and flowers and a red petroglyph on the right.

In this acrylic creation, I've explored the delicate interplay of human grace with nature's ethereal beauty. It's a tribute to quiet resilience and transformation, much like the gent...

Fabulous anthropomorphic creatures that live in nature and are part of nature. Butterfly are a symbol of family well/being and should be in every home ,as they are the embodiment of ...

In creating this piece, I sought to capture the raw, untamed beauty of a coastal hamlet. The vibrant colors imbue life into the quaint homes, juxtaposing the rough, unyielding cliffs...

Through strokes of oil on paper, I crafted a nocturnal dance of colors and light, merging impressionism with a touch of realism. This scene captures the pulsating life of the city at...

In this work, I sought to capture the essence of tranquil reflection, where time meanders as lazily as the pond's waters. Using oil on canvas, my brush strokes embraced realism tinge...

In this oil painting, I've juxtaposed vibrant, blooming roses with the enigmatic presence of felines to embody the interplay of beauty and mystery. The textured strokes capture the r...

In this vibrant acrylic painting, I've captured the essence of a serene, bustling canal scene, infused with the vivacious spirit of impressionism. I painted with emotion to evoke the...

Stylized picture with polar bear in the ice .Working on an animalistic painting, the artist, in addition to compositional tasks, wants to convey the character and mood of the depicted.

The very first of the migratory birds that flies to us and notifies us of the coming of spring.

In this painting, I've poured my soul into capturing the serene connection between these majestic creatures. With acrylics and ink, I've blended figurative art with impressionistic t...

This artwork presents an enchanting landscape, captured with masterful attention to detail. The scene is dominated by a cluster of vibrant pine trees, whose lush, verdant foliage add...

As the creator of this piece, I poured my soul into capturing nature's transient beauty, embracing the dance between light and shadow. I chose oils for their rich texture, creating l...

In my creation, I captured a moment of introspective tranquility, using oils to weave a tapestry of serene colors and delicate shades. Each stroke on the paper is a verse in a poem o...

In creating this piece, I sought to capture the sublime stillness of winter. Using the textural depth of oils, I layered each brushstroke to evoke the cool, crisp air and the muffled...

Very often, the artist draws his inspiration from childhood, because in childhood all the foundations of life and relationships are laid.The twins relationship is something special! ...

Silent dialogue

In our society where everything runs so fast, stopping to consume a painting forces us to stop and reflect on an idea or a problem and consequently helps us develop a capacity for se...

Okurimono Pigment Print About the work : Shibari I is a work by contemporary photographer Christian Houge, from the Okurimono series. In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays an important role. The images from the Okurimono- series is available in 3 different formats : Images from the Okurimono series is available in 3 different formats : * 50 x 75 cm : edition of 10 + (+2ap) * 80 x 120 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) * 113 x 170 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) Each print is numbered and signed More work will be sent from the artistry request. christian at soulfood no In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays a Okurimono (meaning both “gift” and “that which is in-between” in Japanese) - is a word that binds together this comprehensive project developed over five trips to Japan between 2007 and 2018. The series explores the personal pursuit of identity, at times with an underlying darkness as Houge had the chance to be introduced to Tokyo’s subculture. In exploring this theme, Houge has ventured into delicate matters such as sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The artist wishes to question the viewer and provoke a reflection on topics that are often seen as taboos in our contemporary societies. The viewer’s own associations are important in appreciating this work where ambiguity plays an important role. The project started in the Harajuku district of Tokyo which is known as a center of Japanese youth culture and where Houge found some of his first motifs: teenage girls dressing up in post-Victorian dresses or ‘cosplay’ costumes to identify with a character of their favorite comics. Here, the desire to express one’s uniqueness is central and the photographer explores the tension between personal identity and aesthetics shared by all (or at least by the same youth group). In many of his carefully staged photographs, Houge’s models are masked, so as to echo the many social masks we wear in our day-to-day lives. In our post-modern information society, drained of wonder, these enigmatic masked characters also evoke the world of shamans and pagan rituals, therefore injecting a sense of mystery and spirituality that many people are longing for. Symbolism and the many references to ritual and identity in an otherwise suppressed society, may at times create a sense of unease among viewers. The Okurimono project also explores the topic of identity and sexuality in gender dysphoria with Japan’s nyūhāfu (the transsexual ‘new halfs’). Here, the quest for identity coincides with a search of femininity and body image which results in complex physical transformations. Viewers may look at these portraits not having any clue that models are nyūhāfu. Yet, the photographs are staged so that viewers are placed in a disconcerting voyeuristic role while looking at otherwise closed world. Shibari (the art of tying), which originates from the Edo period (1600s), is another territory explored by Houge in his Okurimono series. His striking photographs of female models tied with red rope on a white background take us into this powerful journey into vulnerability and surrender, power and freedom. Through tradition, symbolism and technology, Okurimono also explores the hugely potent symbols that help define parts of Japanese culture and national identity, between old and new. As Art historian Erling Bugge put it: “Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar.” The images of the Okurimono series share a ghostly, otherworldly quality. In reality and dream, ritual and play merge while the boundaries between the known and the unknown dissolve. Christian Houge – Now – Okurimono Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar. This is pushed to the limit in the technological and virtual wonderland of Akihabara in Tokyo, where shop after shop trade in electronic products and computer games, while a weird costume play...

Okurimono 66 cm. x 200 cm. Edition 6 (+2 ap) 100 cm. x 200 cm. Edition 3 (+1ap) Euro 8,000 Pigment Print Okurimono (meaning both “gift” and “that which is in-between” in Japanes...

Okurimono Pigment Print Images from the Okurimono series is available in 3 different formats : * 50 x 75 cm : edition of 10 + (+2ap) * 80 x 120 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) * 113 x...

Okurimono Pigment Print About the work : Shibari I is a work by contemporary photographer Christian Houge, from the Okurimono series. In this series, Houge has, through five trips...

`Shadow Within` Norway/USA 2010-2013 70 cm x 110 cm. (28 in. x 43 in.) Edition 6 + 2 a.p. 110 cm. x 150 cm. (47 in. x 59 in.) Edition 3 + 1 a.p. 100 cm x 150 cm. Edition 3 + 1 a....

`Residence of Impermanence` 2017-2019 My performance series, `Residence of Impermanence`, explores our relationship to animals, fire and Nature. Through the element of fire, I hav...

In this oil painting, I explore the interplay of light and reflection, capturing the serene ambiance of a marina bathed in the warm glow of sunset. The textured strokes convey a sens...

In this oil on canvas, I captured a quiet village blanketed in snow, basking in the serene blue of winter's touch. The textured strokes and impressionistic style evoke the crisp air ...

«Ta meg i mot» oil on canvas by Anastína Eyjólfsdóttir. A toppless woman equipped with blue boxing gloves poses by the shore. Behind her, the sky and small strip of sea create a bl...

`In;Human Nature` Oslo, 2016 In this series, Christian Houge is inspired by our endeavour to connect Man to both the Cosmos and the Earth. By exploring Nature`s geometry in minero...

Okurimono 66 cm. x 200 cm. Edition 6 (+2 ap) 100 cm. x 200 cm. Edition 3 (+1ap) Euro 8,000 Pigment Print Okurimono (meaning both “gift” and “that which is in-between” in Japanese) - is a word that binds together this comprehensive project developed over five trips to Japan between 2007 and 2018. The series explores the personal pursuit of identity, at times with an underlying darkness as Houge had the chance to be introduced to Tokyo’s subculture. In exploring this theme, Houge has ventured into delicate matters such as sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The artist wishes to question the viewer and provoke a reflection on topics that are often seen as taboos in our contemporary societies. The viewer’s own associations are important in appreciating this work where ambiguity plays an important role. The project started in the Harajuku district of Tokyo which is known as a center of Japanese youth culture and where Houge found some of his first motifs: teenage girls dressing up in post-Victorian dresses or ‘cosplay’ costumes to identify with a character of their favorite comics. Here, the desire to express one’s uniqueness is central and the photographer explores the tension between personal identity and aesthetics shared by all (or at least by the same youth group). In many of his carefully staged photographs, Houge’s models are masked, so as to echo the many social masks we wear in our day-to-day lives. In our post-modern information society, drained of wonder, these enigmatic masked characters also evoke the world of shamans and pagan rituals, therefore injecting a sense of mystery and spirituality that many people are longing for. Symbolism and the many references to ritual and identity in an otherwise suppressed society, may at times create a sense of unease among viewers. The Okurimono project also explores the topic of identity and sexuality in gender dysphoria with Japan’s nyūhāfu (the transsexual ‘new halfs’). Here, the quest for identity coincides with a search of femininity and body image which results in complex physical transformations. Viewers may look at these portraits not having any clue that models are nyūhāfu. Yet, the photographs are staged so that viewers are placed in a disconcerting voyeuristic role while looking at otherwise closed world. Shibari (the art of tying), which originates from the Edo period (1600s), is another territory explored by Houge in his Okurimono series. His striking photographs of female models tied with red rope on a white background take us into this powerful journey into vulnerability and surrender, power and freedom. Through tradition, symbolism and technology, Okurimono also explores the hugely potent symbols that help define parts of Japanese culture and national identity, between old and new. As Art historian Erling Bugge put it: “Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden...

Okurimono Pigment Print Images from the Okurimono series is available in 3 different formats : * 50 x 75 cm : edition of 10 + (+2ap) * 80 x 120 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) * 113 x 170 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) Each print is numbered and signed About the work : Work by contemporary photographer Christian Houge, from the Okurimono series. In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays an important role. In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays a Okurimono (meaning both “gift” and “that which is in-between” in Japanese) - is a word that binds together this comprehensive project developed over five trips to Japan between 2007 and 2018. The series explores the personal pursuit of identity, at times with an underlying darkness as Houge had the chance to be introduced to Tokyo’s subculture. In exploring this theme, Houge has ventured into delicate matters such as sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The artist wishes to question the viewer and provoke a reflection on topics that are often seen as taboos in our contemporary societies. The viewer’s own associations are important in appreciating this work where ambiguity plays an important role. The project started in the Harajuku district of Tokyo which is known as a center of Japanese youth culture and where Houge found some of his first motifs: teenage girls dressing up in post-Victorian dresses or ‘cosplay’ costumes to identify with a character of their favorite comics. Here, the desire to express one’s uniqueness is central and the photographer explores the tension between personal identity and aesthetics shared by all (or at least by the same youth group). In many of his carefully staged photographs, Houge’s models are masked, so as to echo the many social masks we wear in our day-to-day lives. In our post-modern information society, drained of wonder, these enigmatic masked characters also evoke the world of shamans and pagan rituals, therefore injecting a sense of mystery and spirituality that many people are longing for. Symbolism and the many references to ritual and identity in an otherwise suppressed society, may at times create a sense of unease among viewers. The Okurimono project also explores the topic of identity and sexuality in gender dysphoria with Japan’s nyūhāfu (the transsexual ‘new halfs’). Here, the quest for identity coincides with a search of femininity and body image which results in complex physical transformations. Viewers may look at these portraits not having any clue that models are nyūhāfu. Yet, the photographs are staged so that viewers are placed in a disconcerting voyeuristic role while looking at otherwise closed world. Shibari (the art of tying), which originates from the Edo period (1600s), is another territory explored by Houge in his Okurimono series. His striking photographs of female models tied with red rope on a white background take us into this powerful journey into vulnerability and surrender, power and freedom. Through tradition, symbolism and technology, Okurimono also explores the hugely potent symbols that help define parts of Japanese culture and national identity, between old and new. As Art historian Erling Bugge put it: “Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar.” The images of the Okurimono series share a ghostly, otherworldly quality. In reality and dream, ritual and play merge while the boundaries between the known and the unknown dissolve. Christian Houge – Now – Okurimono Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar. This is pushed to the limit in the technological and virtual wonderland of Akihabara in Tokyo, where shop after shop trade in electronic products and computer games, while a weird costume play, “cosplay”, is being performed in streets. A similar kind of simulation is being acted out in the district of Harajuku, where Houge found some of his motifs. There is no authenticity here, no western “essence” or “reality”; instead, the virtual conquers the carnal body in a purified play of surface, image and the hyperreal. This is exotic. All the while as we are conscious of these notions as pinnacle points in a western idea of the post-modern. But in this sense Japan has always been “post-modern”. It has always integrated the most refined culture and technology from the outside while somehow retained an identity for itself. So, what would this identity be? Houge takes the view of ritual and play. Indeed, Japanese culture seems to be grounded solely on ritual, in business and in sex, in its relation to nature and in religion. This play transcends the notion of authenticity altogether, unlike the West which is haunted by the “ghost” of origin and beginnings. In Japan, “now” would mean just that; it is a “no looking back”, but rather a flow of intensities integrated in the play and ritual of the ever-present, okurimono. There is no threat of being eaten up by western culture and technology here, for, like in Zen practice, the ritual oversees everything and has no historical drag. Japan becomes weightless, shot into orbit outside the material of earth itself. Is acting out the role as Lewis Caroll’s Victorian girl driven by a sense of nostalgia? I think not. It is a striving for a moment of perfected presence, in dialogue with Houge’s optical machine. It is the moment of Now. The girl, the Zen garden and the image shares in a perfection modified by small uncertainties, coincidental imperfections that become somewhat oblique points of entry for us - a discarded handkerchief or seemingly unremarkable shapes and reflections in the prismatic play of surfaces. There is a ghostly, otherworldly quality in these images, even in the fleeting blossoming cherrytree and the play of shadows across a concrete minimalism. The doubly exposed or reflected light on the lens reminds us of the uncertain beginnings in photography’s history, with its widespread belief that the camera was able to perceive more than the naked eye, like spirits and ghosts. In Houge’s images there are different specters, skeletal, natural shapes on the one hand, the machine and the virtual on the other. Here, like some scene from the film Blade Runner, there is an uncanny confusion and mix between the human and non human. Maybe the search for a perfect moment in the perpetual flow of things is a romantic or melancholic longing for transcendent wholeness, a drive that is harnessed in a rigorous attention to visual detail. This compulsive discipline might seem absurd to any western observer, while longing itself form a common ground and will ultimately be the basis in our meeting. Erling Bugge Bio: Christian Houge (born in Oslo 1972) Based in Oslo, Norway, I have been making photographs for over twenty years and new insights continue to open. By exploring the relation, and conflict, between Nature and culture, I get a better understanding about Mans` condition. I am interested in the consequences of Humankinds progression and how science often is the result of our conquering of Nature, both on Earth and beyond. Mans` ego, consumer society, the last remnants of pure Nature and identity are recurring elements in my work. I often juxtapose the visually aesthetic with an underlying uneasiness. This often emanates a cognitive dissonance in the viewer to invite deeper truths and personal references. Looking at our actions and place in environment, which we are so dependent on, is a recurring theme in all my exploration and can use everything from digital cameras to large format and panoramic analog cameras for specific projects. I have exhibited extensively in galleries and museums in my native country Norway, as well as the US, England, France and China. The series `Death of a Mountain`(2016-2021) is nominated for the 2021 Leica Oskar Barnack Award, as well as receiving an arts grant from Norwegian Arts Council. Most recently, my series `Residence of Impermanence` 2017-2019 has been exhibited at five museums and several galleries already (including a solo show at Fotografiska, Stockholm (2019), and Les Recontres d`Arles, Haugar Artmuseum, Preus Muaeum of Photography and 2019 (Galerie Omnius, Arles). In 2021, this series received ten nominations for the Prix Pictet Award with the theme FIRE. `Residence of Impermanence` is currently exhibited at the UCR: California Museum of Photography in Los Angeles with the exhibition `Facing Fire,` Art, Wildfire and The End of Nature in the New West...

Okurimono Pigment Print About the work : Shibari I is a work by contemporary photographer Christian Houge, from the Okurimono series. In this series, Houge has, through five trips...

All available sizes & editions for each size of this photograph: 90 cm. x 120 cm. Edition AP 1 `Residence of Impermanence` 2017-2019 My performance series, `Residence of Impermanence`, explores our relationship to animals, fire and nature. Through the element of fire, I have found a way to express myself in totemic ritualistic performance by burning decaying trophy animals. The element of fire is very symbolic. It represents both destruction and creation. Animals and fire have, in many ways, formed our culture since the dawn of Mankind. They have also served as essential symbols in myth, spirituality, art and religion. Fire has protected us and given us hope. Given us a means to evolve in all culture. In Greek mythology, remember Prometheus. In the hand of Man, fire can be anything. It is our ethics that define it. We have always mirrored ourselves in Nature. What we see staring back at us may not be the image we were hoping for. This series is a reminder to where we have come regarding our relation to Nature and the huge effects of climatechange in the Anthropocene. My work often juxtaposes the visually aesthetic and uneasiness. An underlying feeling of that which is lost often plays an important role. I like to explore work themes that emanate a cognitive dissonance in the viewer to reveal more profound truths. I regard trophy animals as symbols of Man´s vanity and presumed victory over Nature. To me, they also serve as symbols of our general attitude towards Nature. The flames gives each animal a last breath of life as it creates a new portrait. The animal is set free again, ending a symbolic circle of life. A closure if you will, both physically and existentially. The English-inspired wallpapers represent imperialism and a colonial idea from a time when we were obsessed by conquering Nature and other lands. These too are burned with the animals symbolizing a protest toward our autocracy towards Nature itself. The repetitive performance of burning each animal serves as both an offering and a liberation. This is a violent act, but also a meaningful and beautiful act to me. The animals` personality changes dramatically throughout the burning process. This cannot be planned and therefore the animals give off a sense of further individuality. In the process of burning animals, I am also taking an object of desire off the market for further sales. An act that hopefully will spark dialog our use of Nature, as well as where we want to be heading in the near future. Dialog foments change and action. I spent seven years collecting old trophy animals and taxidermy of different sorts. Many were bought through auctions, while others were given to me by hunters` or the widows of hunters for this specific project. During the following three years, I went through a somewhat cathartic process of burning and obsessively exploring the symbolism of fire and our relation to animals with my performance. The intention with my series is to connect the public to the crucial matters at hand through something tangible, personal, and symbolic. These three years of working with this series has made me so much more conscious of how delicate nature is and how we have taken it for granted for too long. A reminder of how crucial both animals, fire and nature, for our so-called progress in survival and progress. Through this process, exploring new questions and inviting a larger audience to ask their own crucial questions in the massive global changes we all are witnessing, is what I strive for. Loss of animal diversity, poaching and massive forest fires are increasing so rapidly that Nature itself is at a major turning point. A call for action is needed. Working so close to the animals in my project has been as uplifting as it has been obsessive and heartbreaking, as the animal's eye connects with you on a personal level as a human does in non-verbal communication. In 2016, the government in Kenya burned poached ivory worth an estimated 130 million dollars, making a clear statement that these tusks should only belong to a living animal. This dramatic action created meaningful dialog around the world beyond news and statistics. Fires are destroying critical areas of much-needed land vegetation, thus creating considerable effects on climate change. The meeting between Nature`s fragility and Mans` ego has shown that forests disappear, glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising and species become extinct. Humans have too easily exploited all parts of nature with our own culture and growth. In this short process, we have lost the very essence of what we are a part, and thus forget the very nature in ourselves. What can photography do to create questions regarding climate change, and help us move towards a sustainable future? In photography, we can ask important questions about changes in our surroundings and who we are—Man’s condition. Background: `Residence of Impermanence` has been exhibited at five museums and several galleries already (including a big solo show at Fotografiska, Stockholm (2019), and Arles Fotofestival (2019). Work from `Residence of Impermanence' is currently exhibited at the UCR: California Museum of Photography in Los Angeles with the exhibition `Facing Fire,` Art, Wildfire and The End of Nature in the New West.` This exhibition explores the ever-worsening Californian forest fires due to climate change. My previous environmental work has been nominated for the Prix Pictet Award twice before with my previous series for both Earth and Power themes. In 2005, my series `Arctic Technology` was shortlisted for the BMW Prize at Paris photo (through Scout Gallery, London). My other series has been shown in museums, including a symposium at Johnson Museum, N.Y. and been part of travelling exhibitions with WHATCOM (Museum of Washington) with the exhibition `Vanishing Ice` and a China tour on environmental issues with Three Shadows Photography...

`Residence of Impermanence` 2017-2019 My performance series, `Residence of Impermanence`, explores our relationship to animals, fire and Nature. Through the element of fire, I hav...

Okurimono 66 cm. x 200 cm. Edition 6 (+2 ap) 100 cm. x 200 cm. Edition 3 (+1ap) Euro 8,000 Pigment Print Okurimono (meaning both “gift” and “that which is in-between” in Japanese) - is a word that binds together this comprehensive project developed over five trips to Japan between 2007 and 2018. The series explores the personal pursuit of identity, at times with an underlying darkness as Houge had the chance to be introduced to Tokyo’s subculture. In exploring this theme, Houge has ventured into delicate matters such as sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The artist wishes to question the viewer and provoke a reflection on topics that are often seen as taboos in our contemporary societies. The viewer’s own associations are important in appreciating this work where ambiguity plays an important role. The project started in the Harajuku district of Tokyo which is known as a center of Japanese youth culture and where Houge found some of his first motifs: teenage girls dressing up in post-Victorian dresses or ‘cosplay’ costumes to identify with a character of their favorite comics. Here, the desire to express one’s uniqueness is central and the photographer explores the tension between personal identity and aesthetics shared by all (or at least by the same youth group). In many of his carefully staged photographs, Houge’s models are masked, so as to echo the many social masks we wear in our day-to-day lives. In our post-modern information society, drained of wonder, these enigmatic masked characters also evoke the world of shamans and pagan rituals, therefore injecting a sense of mystery and spirituality that many people are longing for. Symbolism and the many references to ritual and identity in an otherwise suppressed society, may at times create a sense of unease among viewers. The Okurimono project also explores the topic of identity and sexuality in gender dysphoria with Japan’s nyūhāfu (the transsexual ‘new halfs’). Here, the quest for identity coincides with a search of femininity and body image which results in complex physical transformations. Viewers may look at these portraits not having any clue that models are nyūhāfu. Yet, the photographs are staged so that viewers are placed in a disconcerting voyeuristic role while looking at otherwise closed world. Shibari (the art of tying), which originates from the Edo period (1600s), is another territory explored by Houge in his Okurimono series. His striking photographs of female models tied with red rope on a white background take us into this powerful journey into vulnerability and surrender, power and freedom. Through tradition, symbolism and technology, Okurimono also explores the hugely potent symbols that help define parts of Japanese culture and national identity, between old and new. As Art historian Erling Bugge put it: “Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar.” The images of the Okurimono series share a ghostly, otherworldly quality. In reality and dream, ritual and play merge while the boundaries between the known and the unknown dissolve. Christian Houge – Now – Okurimono Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar. This is pushed to the limit in the technological and virtual wonderland of Akihabara in Tokyo, where shop after shop trade in electronic products and computer games, while a weird costume play...

Okurimono Pigment Print Images from the Okurimono series is available in 3 different formats : * 50 x 75 cm : edition of 10 + (+2ap) * 80 x 120 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) * 113 x 170 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) Each print is numbered and signed About the work : Work by contemporary photographer Christian Houge, from the Okurimono series. In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays an important role. In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays a Okurimono (meaning both “gift” and “that which is in-between” in Japanese) - is a word that binds together this comprehensive project developed over five trips to Japan between 2007 and 2018. The series explores the personal pursuit of identity, at times with an underlying darkness as Houge had the chance to be introduced to Tokyo’s subculture. In exploring this theme, Houge has ventured into delicate matters such as sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The artist wishes to question the viewer and provoke a reflection on topics that are often seen as taboos in our contemporary societies. The viewer’s own associations are important in appreciating this work where ambiguity plays an important role. The project started in the Harajuku district of Tokyo which is known as a center of Japanese youth culture and where Houge found some of his first motifs: teenage girls dressing up in post-Victorian dresses or ‘cosplay’ costumes to identify with a character of their favorite comics. Here, the desire to express one’s uniqueness is central and the photographer explores the tension between personal identity and aesthetics shared by all (or at least by the same youth group). In many of his carefully staged photographs, Houge’s models are masked, so as to echo the many social masks we wear in our day-to-day lives. In our post-modern information society, drained of wonder, these enigmatic masked characters also evoke the world of shamans and pagan rituals, therefore injecting a sense of mystery and spirituality that many people are longing for. Symbolism and the many references to ritual and identity in an otherwise suppressed society, may at times create a sense of unease among viewers. The Okurimono project also explores the topic of identity and sexuality in gender dysphoria with Japan’s nyūhāfu (the transsexual ‘new halfs’). Here, the quest for identity coincides with a search of femininity and body image which results in complex physical transformations. Viewers may look at these portraits not having any clue that models are nyūhāfu. Yet, the photographs are staged so that viewers are placed in a disconcerting voyeuristic role while looking at otherwise closed world. Shibari (the art of tying), which originates from the Edo period (1600s), is another territory explored by Houge in his Okurimono series. His striking photographs of female models tied with red rope on a white background take us into this powerful journey into vulnerability and surrender, power and freedom. Through tradition, symbolism and technology, Okurimono also explores the hugely potent symbols that help define parts of Japanese culture and national identity, between old and new. As Art historian Erling Bugge put it: “Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar.” The images of the Okurimono series share a ghostly, otherworldly quality. In reality and dream, ritual and play merge while the boundaries between the known and the unknown dissolve. Christian Houge – Now – Okurimono Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar. This is pushed to the limit in the technological and virtual wonderland of Akihabara in Tokyo, where shop after shop trade in electronic products and computer games, while a weird costume play, “cosplay”, is being performed in streets. A similar kind of simulation is being acted out in the district of Harajuku, where Houge found some of his motifs. There is no authenticity here, no western “essence” or “reality”; instead, the virtual conquers the carnal body in a purified play of surface, image and the hyperreal. This is exotic. All the while as we are conscious of these notions as pinnacle points in a western idea of the post-modern. But in this sense Japan has always been “post-modern”. It has always integrated the most refined culture and technology from the outside while somehow retained an identity for itself. So, what would this identity be? Houge takes the view of ritual and play. Indeed, Japanese culture seems to be grounded solely on ritual, in business and in sex, in its relation to nature and in religion. This play transcends the notion of authenticity altogether, unlike the West which is haunted by the “ghost” of origin and beginnings. In Japan, “now” would mean just that; it is a “no looking back”, but rather a flow of intensities integrated in the play and ritual of the ever-present, okurimono. There is no threat of being eaten up by western culture and technology here, for, like in Zen practice, the ritual oversees everything and has no historical drag. Japan becomes weightless, shot into orbit outside the material of earth itself. Is acting out the role as Lewis Caroll’s Victorian girl driven by a sense of nostalgia? I think not. It is a striving for a moment of perfected presence, in dialogue with Houge’s optical machine. It is the moment of Now. The girl, the Zen garden and the image shares in a perfection modified by small uncertainties, coincidental imperfections that become somewhat oblique points of entry for us - a discarded handkerchief or seemingly unremarkable shapes and reflections in the prismatic play of surfaces. There is a ghostly, otherworldly quality in these images, even in the fleeting blossoming cherrytree and the play of shadows across a concrete minimalism. The doubly exposed or reflected light on the lens reminds us of the uncertain beginnings in photography’s history, with its widespread belief that the camera was able to perceive more than the naked eye, like spirits and ghosts. In Houge’s images there are different specters, skeletal, natural shapes on the one hand, the machine and the virtual on the other. Here, like some scene from the film Blade Runner, there is an uncanny confusion and mix between the human and non human. Maybe the search for a perfect moment in the perpetual flow of things is a romantic or melancholic longing for transcendent wholeness, a drive that is harnessed in a rigorous attention to visual detail. This compulsive discipline might seem absurd to any western observer, while longing itself form a common ground and will ultimately be the basis in our meeting. Erling Bugge Bio: Christian Houge (born in Oslo 1972) Based in Oslo, Norway, I have been making photographs for over twenty years and new insights continue to open. By exploring the relation, and conflict, between Nature and culture, I get a better understanding about Mans` condition. I am interested in the consequences of Humankinds progression and how science often is the result of our conquering of Nature, both on Earth and beyond. Mans` ego, consumer society, the last remnants of pure Nature and identity are recurring elements in my work. I often juxtapose the visually aesthetic with an underlying uneasiness. This often emanates a cognitive dissonance in the viewer to invite deeper truths and personal references. Looking at our actions and place in environment, which we are so dependent on, is a recurring theme in all my exploration and can use everything from digital cameras to large format and panoramic analog cameras for specific projects. I have exhibited extensively in galleries and museums in my native country Norway, as well as the US, England, France and China. The series `Death of a Mountain`(2016-2021) is nominated for the 2021 Leica Oskar Barnack Award, as well as receiving an arts grant from Norwegian Arts Council. Most recently, my series `Residence of Impermanence` 2017-2019 has been exhibited at five museums and several galleries already (including a solo show at Fotografiska, Stockholm (2019), and Les Recontres d`Arles, Haugar Artmuseum, Preus Muaeum of Photography and 2019 (Galerie Omnius, Arles). In 2021, this series received ten nominations for the Prix Pictet Award with the theme FIRE. `Residence of Impermanence` is currently exhibited at the UCR: California Museum of Photography in Los Angeles with the exhibition `Facing Fire,` Art, Wildfire and The End of Nature in the New West.` This exhibition explores the ever-worsening forest fires due to climate change. In 2005, my series `Arctic Technology`, was shortlisted for the BMW Prize at Paris Photo (Scout Gallery, London). In 2015, my series `Paradise Lost`(containing three of my main environmental series) toured between three large museums in China. My other environmental work has been nominated for the annual Prix Pictet Award twice, with my series, `Barentsburg` and `Shadow Within`, for both Earth and Power themes. In 2005, my series `Arctic Technology` was shortlisted for the BMW Prize at Paris photo (through Scout Gallery, London). My work has been shown in numerous museums, including a symposium at Johnson Museum, N.Y., was included in traveling exhibitions with WHATCOM (Museum of Washington) with the exhibition `Vanishing Ice`, as well as a two-year museum tour in China environmental issues with Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing and the Norwegian Embassy. Publications/books include `Vanishing Ice`and `Altered Landscape` (Nevada Museum of Art), including purchased work for their collection at Center for Art and Environment. Selected exhibitions CV: Christian Houge (born in Oslo 1972) - Curriculum Vitae 2021 `As far as my Eye can Sea – The Expedition Exhibition` Rev Ocean, Bomuldsfabrikken Kunsthall, Arendal `Facing Fire`, Collaborative, UCR ARTS:California Museum of Photography Continuation `Death of a Mountain`/ In;Human Nature`, Buer Gallery, Oslo 2020 `Facing Fire`, Collaborative, UCR ARTS:California Museum of Photography 2019 `Metafysica`, `Residence of Impermanence`,collaborative, Haugar Kunstmuseum, Vestfold `Residence of Impermanence`, Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm. Solo `Helt Dyrisk` Residence of Impermanence`, collaborative, Preus Museum, Horten `Residence of Impermanence`, Galleri Fineart, Oslo. Solo 2017 `Shadow Within/Rituals` Gulden Kunstverk, Drammen. Solo Commission, MAAEMO restaurant. `In;Human Nature` `Mirror,Mirror` Hosfelt Gallery, San.Fran. Collaborative w/Ed Ruscha, Adam Fuss, Liliana Porter 2016 `In;Human Nature`, TM51 Gallery, Oslo. Solo Fotofever/ParisPhoto, Louvre, Paris Cornette de Saint Cyr, Auction, Paris 2015 Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing, China. `Paradise Lost` . `Arctic Technology/Barentsburg`/ Shadow Within. Solo Fotofever (ParisPhoto), Artistics Art Gallery, Paris. Collaborative How Art Museum, Wenzhou, China. `Paradise Lost` Arctic Technology/Barentsburg/Shadow Within. Solo Redtory, Guangzhou, China. `Paradise Lost` Arctic Technology/Barentsburg/Shadow Within. Solo 2014 Fineart Gallery, Oslo `Shadow Within` 2010-2013 / `Darkness Burns Bright` 2013/2014. Solo Beyond Earth Art • (contemporary artists and the environment) Johnson Museum of Art, New York. Shadow Within. Collaborative (incl. Olafur Eliasson, Edward Burtynsky, Mathew Brandt, Yun-Fei Ji amongst others) The El Paso Museum of Art, Texas. `Arctic Technology`. Collaborative Glenbow Museum, Alberta. `Arctic Technology`. Collaborative LIFF (Lofoten International Photofestival) `Shadow Within` w/speaking. Solo 2013 Nominated for the Prix Pictet Award/ `Shadow Within`. Hosfelt Gallery, San.Fran. USA. `Shadow Within`. Solo Accompanied by Call of the Wild`( Joseph Beuys, Ed Ruscha, Patricia Piccinini and Alan Rath...

Okurimono 66 cm. x 200 cm. Edition 6 (+2 ap) 100 cm. x 200 cm. Edition 3 (+1ap) Euro 8,000 Pigment Print Okurimono (meaning both “gift” and “that which is in-between” in Japanese) - is a word that binds together this comprehensive project developed over five trips to Japan between 2007 and 2018. The series explores the personal pursuit of identity, at times with an underlying darkness as Houge had the chance to be introduced to Tokyo’s subculture. In exploring this theme, Houge has ventured into delicate matters such as sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The artist wishes to question the viewer and provoke a reflection on topics that are often seen as taboos in our contemporary societies. The viewer’s own associations are important in appreciating this work where ambiguity plays an important role. The project started in the Harajuku district of Tokyo which is known as a center of Japanese youth culture and where Houge found some of his first motifs: teenage girls dressing up in post-Victorian dresses or ‘cosplay’ costumes to identify with a character of their favorite comics. Here, the desire to express one’s uniqueness is central and the photographer explores the tension between personal identity and aesthetics shared by all (or at least by the same youth group). In many of his carefully staged photographs, Houge’s models are masked, so as to echo the many social masks we wear in our day-to-day lives. In our post-modern information society, drained of wonder, these enigmatic masked characters also evoke the world of shamans and pagan rituals, therefore injecting a sense of mystery and spirituality that many people are longing for. Symbolism and the many references to ritual and identity in an otherwise suppressed society, may at times create a sense of unease among viewers. The Okurimono project also explores the topic of identity and sexuality in gender dysphoria with Japan’s nyūhāfu (the transsexual ‘new halfs’). Here, the quest for identity coincides with a search of femininity and body image which results in complex physical transformations. Viewers may look at these portraits not having any clue that models are nyūhāfu. Yet, the photographs are staged so that viewers are placed in a disconcerting voyeuristic role while looking at otherwise closed world. Shibari (the art of tying), which originates from the Edo period (1600s), is another territory explored by Houge in his Okurimono series. His striking photographs of female models tied with red rope on a white background take us into this powerful journey into vulnerability and surrender, power and freedom. Through tradition, symbolism and technology, Okurimono also explores the hugely potent symbols that help define parts of Japanese culture and national identity, between old and new. As Art historian Erling Bugge put it: “Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar.” The images of the Okurimono series share a ghostly, otherworldly quality. In reality and dream, ritual and play merge while the boundaries between the known and the unknown dissolve. Christian Houge – Now – Okurimono Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar. This is pushed to the limit in the technological and virtual wonderland of Akihabara in Tokyo, where shop after shop trade in electronic products and computer games, while a weird costume play, “cosplay”, is being performed in streets. A similar kind of simulation is being acted out in the district of Harajuku, where Houge found some of his motifs. There is no authenticity here, no western “essence” or “reality”; instead, the virtual conquers the carnal body in a purified play of surface, image and the hyperreal. This is exotic. All the while as we are conscious of these notions as pinnacle points in a western idea of the post-modern. But in this sense Japan has always been “post-modern”. It has always integrated the most refined culture and technology from the outside while somehow retained an identity for itself. So, what would this identity be? Houge takes the view of ritual and play. Indeed, Japanese culture seems to be grounded solely on ritual, in business and in sex, in its relation to nature and in religion. This play transcends the notion of authenticity altogether, unlike the West which is haunted by the “ghost” of origin and beginnings. In Japan, “now” would mean just that; it is a “no looking back”, but rather a flow of intensities integrated in the play and ritual of the ever-present, okurimono. There is no threat of being eaten up by western culture and technology here, for, like in Zen practice, the ritual oversees everything and has no historical drag. Japan becomes weightless, shot into orbit outside the material of earth itself. Is acting out the role as Lewis Caroll’s Victorian girl driven by a sense of nostalgia? I think not. It is a striving for a moment of perfected presence, in dialogue with Houge’s optical machine. It is the moment of Now. The girl, the Zen garden and the image shares in a perfection modified by small uncertainties, coincidental imperfections that become somewhat oblique points of entry for us - a discarded handkerchief or seemingly unremarkable shapes and reflections in the prismatic play of surfaces. There is a ghostly, otherworldly quality in these images, even in the fleeting blossoming cherrytree and the play of shadows across a concrete minimalism. The doubly exposed or reflected light on the lens reminds us of the uncertain beginnings in photography’s history, with its widespread belief that the camera was able to perceive more than the naked eye, like spirits and ghosts. In Houge’s images there are different specters, skeletal, natural shapes on the one hand, the machine and the virtual on the other. Here, like some scene from the film Blade Runner, there is an uncanny confusion and mix between the human and non human. Maybe the search for a perfect moment in the perpetual flow of things is a romantic or melancholic longing for transcendent wholeness, a drive that is harnessed in a rigorous attention to visual detail. This compulsive discipline might seem absurd to any western observer, while longing itself form a common ground and will ultimately be the basis in our meeting. Erling Bugge Bio: Christian Houge (born in Oslo 1972) Based in Oslo, Norway, I have been making photographs for over twenty years and new insights continue to open. By exploring the relation, and conflict, between Nature and culture, I get a better understanding about Mans` condition. I am interested in the consequences of Humankinds progression and how science often is the result of our conquering of Nature, both on Earth and beyond. Mans` ego, consumer society, the last remnants of pure Nature and identity are recurring elements in my work. I often juxtapose the visually aesthetic with an underlying uneasiness. This often emanates a cognitive dissonance in the viewer to invite deeper truths and personal references. Looking at our actions and place in environment, which we are so dependent on, is a recurring theme in all my exploration and can use everything from digital cameras to large format and panoramic analog cameras for specific projects. I have exhibited extensively in galleries and museums in my native country Norway, as well as the US, England, France and China. The series `Death of a Mountain`(2016-2021) is nominated for the 2021 Leica Oskar Barnack Award, as well as receiving an arts grant from Norwegian Arts Council. Most recently, my series `Residence of Impermanence` 2017-2019 has been exhibited at five museums and several galleries already (including a solo show at Fotografiska, Stockholm (2019), and Les Recontres d`Arles, Haugar Artmuseum, Preus Muaeum of Photography and 2019 (Galerie Omnius, Arles). In 2021, this series received ten nominations for the Prix Pictet Award with the theme FIRE. `Residence of Impermanence` is currently exhibited at the UCR: California Museum of Photography in Los Angeles with the exhibition `Facing Fire,` Art, Wildfire and The End of Nature in the New West.` This exhibition explores the ever-worsening forest fires due to climate change. In 2005, my series `Arctic Technology`, was shortlisted for the BMW Prize at Paris Photo (Scout Gallery, London). In 2015, my series `Paradise Lost`(containing three of my main environmental series) toured between three large museums in China. My other environmental work has been nominated for the annual Prix Pictet Award twice, with my series, `Barentsburg` and `Shadow Within`, for both Earth and Power themes. In 2005, my series `Arctic Technology` was shortlisted for the BMW Prize at Paris photo (through Scout Gallery, London). My work has been shown in numerous museums, including a symposium at Johnson Museum, N.Y., was included in traveling exhibitions with WHATCOM (Museum of Washington) with the exhibition `Vanishing Ice`, as well as a two-year museum tour in China environmental issues with Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing and the Norwegian Embassy. Publications/books include `Vanishing Ice`and `Altered Landscape` (Nevada Museum of Art), including purchased work for their collection at Center for Art and Environment. Selected exhibitions CV: Christian Houge (born in Oslo 1972) - Curriculum Vitae 2021 `As far as my Eye can Sea – The Expedition Exhibition` Rev Ocean, Bomuldsfabrikken Kunsthall, Arendal `Facing Fire`, Collaborative, UCR ARTS:California Museum of Photography Continuation `Death of a Mountain`/ In;Human Nature`, Buer Gallery, Oslo 2020 `Facing Fire`, Collaborative, UCR ARTS:California Museum of Photography 2019 `Metafysica`, `Residence of Impermanence`,collaborative, Haugar Kunstmuseum, Vestfold `Residence of Impermanence`, Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm. Solo `Helt Dyrisk` Residence of Impermanence`, collaborative, Preus Museum, Horten `Residence of Impermanence`, Galleri Fineart, Oslo. Solo 2017 `Shadow Within/Rituals` Gulden Kunstverk, Drammen. Solo Commission, MAAEMO restaurant. `In;Human Nature` `Mirror,Mirror` Hosfelt Gallery, San.Fran. Collaborative w/Ed Ruscha, Adam Fuss, Liliana Porter 2016 `In;Human Nature`, TM51 Gallery, Oslo. Solo Fotofever/ParisPhoto, Louvre, Paris Cornette de Saint Cyr, Auction, Paris 2015 Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing, China. `Paradise Lost` . `Arctic Technology/Barentsburg`/ Shadow Within. Solo Fotofever (ParisPhoto), Artistics Art Gallery, Paris. Collaborative How Art Museum, Wenzhou, China. `Paradise Lost` Arctic Technology/Barentsburg/Shadow Within. Solo Redtory, Guangzhou, China. `Paradise Lost` Arctic Technology/Barentsburg/Shadow Within. Solo 2014 Fineart Gallery, Oslo `Shadow Within` 2010-2013 / `Darkness Burns Bright` 2013/2014. Solo Beyond Earth Art • (contemporary artists and the environment) Johnson Museum of Art, New York. Shadow Within. Collaborative (incl. Olafur Eliasson, Edward Burtynsky, Mathew Brandt, Yun-Fei Ji amongst others) The El Paso Museum of Art, Texas. `Arctic Technology`. Collaborative Glenbow Museum, Alberta. `Arctic Technology`. Collaborative LIFF (Lofoten International Photofestival) `Shadow Within` w/speaking. Solo 2013 Nominated for the Prix Pictet Award/ `Shadow Within`. Hosfelt Gallery, San.Fran. USA. `Shadow Within`. Solo Accompanied by Call of the Wild`( Joseph Beuys, Ed Ruscha, Patricia Piccinini and Alan Rath...

`Shadow Within` Norway/USA 2010-2013 70 cm x 110 cm. (28 in. x 43 in.) Edition 6 + 2 a.p. 100 cm x 150 cm. Edition 3 + 1 a.p. Archival ink cotton paper (archival pigment print)...

Okurimono Pigment Print Images from the Okurimono series is available in 3 different formats : * 50 x 75 cm : edition of 10 + (+2ap) * 80 x 120 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) * 113 x 170 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) Each print is numbered and signed About the work : Work by contemporary photographer Christian Houge, from the Okurimono series. In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays an important role. In this series, Houge has, through five trips to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto), explored Japans otherworldly subculture and its ritualistic perfection. In this personal art documentary he has ventured into delicate themes such as personal identity, sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The viewers associations are important in meeting this work and ambiguity plays a Okurimono (meaning both “gift” and “that which is in-between” in Japanese) - is a word that binds together this comprehensive project developed over five trips to Japan between 2007 and 2018. The series explores the personal pursuit of identity, at times with an underlying darkness as Houge had the chance to be introduced to Tokyo’s subculture. In exploring this theme, Houge has ventured into delicate matters such as sexuality, longing and gender dysphoria. In this particular series, he uses staging as a method to create a story within a story. The artist wishes to question the viewer and provoke a reflection on topics that are often seen as taboos in our contemporary societies. The viewer’s own associations are important in appreciating this work where ambiguity plays an important role. The project started in the Harajuku district of Tokyo which is known as a center of Japanese youth culture and where Houge found some of his first motifs: teenage girls dressing up in post-Victorian dresses or ‘cosplay’ costumes to identify with a character of their favorite comics. Here, the desire to express one’s uniqueness is central and the photographer explores the tension between personal identity and aesthetics shared by all (or at least by the same youth group). In many of his carefully staged photographs, Houge’s models are masked, so as to echo the many social masks we wear in our day-to-day lives. In our post-modern information society, drained of wonder, these enigmatic masked characters also evoke the world of shamans and pagan rituals, therefore injecting a sense of mystery and spirituality that many people are longing for. Symbolism and the many references to ritual and identity in an otherwise suppressed society, may at times create a sense of unease among viewers. The Okurimono project also explores the topic of identity and sexuality in gender dysphoria with Japan’s nyūhāfu (the transsexual ‘new halfs’). Here, the quest for identity coincides with a search of femininity and body image which results in complex physical transformations. Viewers may look at these portraits not having any clue that models are nyūhāfu. Yet, the photographs are staged so that viewers are placed in a disconcerting voyeuristic role while looking at otherwise closed world. Shibari (the art of tying), which originates from the Edo period (1600s), is another territory explored by Houge in his Okurimono series. His striking photographs of female models tied with red rope on a white background take us into this powerful journey into vulnerability and surrender, power and freedom. Through tradition, symbolism and technology, Okurimono also explores the hugely potent symbols that help define parts of Japanese culture and national identity, between old and new. As Art historian Erling Bugge put it: “Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar.” The images of the Okurimono series share a ghostly, otherworldly quality. In reality and dream, ritual and play merge while the boundaries between the known and the unknown dissolve. Christian Houge – Now – Okurimono Christian Houge guides us into a mystery. It resides between the ritualized shapes of the traditional and withdrawn Zen garden in Kyoto and the equally ritualized spaces of futuristic, urban Tokyo. For a westerner, Japan might look familiar, since what is held up for us looks like a futuristic spectacle somehow grounded in a western imagination. This judgment, however, is too easy. In Houge’s photographs, the sense of sameness withdraws and a very different feeling of strangeness creeps up on us. In fact, what this series registers is a remarkable place of alterity in today’s global order, a radical difference bang in the middle of the familiar. This is pushed to the limit in the technological and virtual wonderland of Akihabara in Tokyo, where shop after shop trade in electronic products and computer games, while a weird costume play, “cosplay”, is being performed in streets. A similar kind of simulation is being acted out in the district of Harajuku, where Houge found some of his motifs. There is no authenticity here, no western “essence” or “reality”; instead, the virtual conquers the carnal body in a purified play of surface, image and the hyperreal. This is exotic. All the while as we are conscious of these notions as pinnacle points in a western idea of the post-modern. But in this sense Japan has always been “post-modern”. It has always integrated the most refined culture and technology from the outside while somehow retained an identity for itself. So, what would this identity be? Houge takes the view of ritual and play. Indeed, Japanese culture seems to be grounded solely on ritual, in business and in sex, in its relation to nature and in religion. This play transcends the notion of authenticity altogether, unlike the West which is haunted by the “ghost” of origin and beginnings. In Japan, “now” would mean just that; it is a “no looking back”, but rather a flow of intensities integrated in the play and ritual of the ever-present, okurimono. There is no threat of being eaten up by western culture and technology here, for, like in Zen practice, the ritual oversees everything and has no historical drag. Japan becomes weightless, shot into orbit outside the material of earth itself. Is acting out the role as Lewis Caroll’s Victorian girl driven by a sense of nostalgia? I think not. It is a striving for a moment of perfected presence, in dialogue with Houge’s optical machine. It is the moment of Now. The girl, the Zen garden and the image shares in a perfection modified by small uncertainties, coincidental imperfections that become somewhat oblique points of entry for us - a discarded handkerchief or seemingly unremarkable shapes and reflections in the prismatic play of surfaces. There is a ghostly, otherworldly quality in these images, even in the fleeting blossoming cherrytree and the play of shadows across a concrete minimalism. The doubly exposed or reflected light on the lens reminds us of the uncertain beginnings in photography’s history, with its widespread belief that the camera was able to perceive more than the naked eye, like spirits and ghosts. In Houge’s images there are different specters, skeletal, natural shapes on the one hand, the machine and the virtual on the other. Here, like some scene from the film Blade Runner, there is an uncanny confusion and mix between the human and non human. Maybe the search for a perfect moment in the perpetual flow of things is a romantic or melancholic longing for transcendent wholeness, a drive that is harnessed in a rigorous attention to visual detail. This compulsive discipline might seem absurd to any western observer, while longing itself form a common ground and will ultimately be the basis in our meeting. Erling Bugge Bio: Christian Houge (born in Oslo 1972) Based in Oslo, Norway, I have been making photographs for over twenty years and new insights continue to open. By exploring the relation, and conflict, between Nature and culture, I get a better understanding about Mans` condition. I am interested in the consequences of Humankinds progression and how science often is the result of our conquering of Nature, both on Earth and beyond. Mans` ego, consumer society, the last remnants of pure Nature and identity are recurring elements in my work. I often juxtapose the visually aesthetic with an underlying uneasiness. This often emanates a cognitive dissonance in the viewer to invite deeper truths and personal references. Looking at our actions and place in environment, which we are so dependent on, is a recurring theme in all my exploration and can use everything from digital cameras to large format and panoramic analog cameras for specific projects. I have exhibited extensively in galleries and museums in my native country Norway, as well as the US, England, France and China. The series `Death of a Mountain`(2016-2021) is nominated for the 2021 Leica Oskar Barnack Award, as well as receiving an arts grant from Norwegian Arts Council. Most recently, my series `Residence of Impermanence` 2017-2019 has been exhibited at five museums and several galleries already (including a solo show at Fotografiska, Stockholm (2019), and Les Recontres d`Arles, Haugar Artmuseum, Preus Muaeum of Photography and 2019 (Galerie Omnius, Arles). In 2021, this series received ten nominations for the Prix Pictet Award with the theme FIRE. `Residence of Impermanence` is currently exhibited at the UCR: California Museum of Photography in Los Angeles with the exhibition `Facing Fire,` Art, Wildfire and The End of Nature in the New West...

Okurimono Pigment Print Images from the Okurimono series is available in 3 different formats : * 50 x 75 cm : edition of 10 + (+2ap) * 80 x 120 cm : edition of 7 + (+2ap) * 113 x...

`Zebra 2` Oslo, 2019- from the series `Residence of Impermanence` 120 x 170 cm Edition 7 `Residence of Impermanence` 2017-2019 My performance series, `Residence of Impermanence`, ...

Giorgi Qochiashvili's colourful world is impressive to say the least. Inspired by poetry, Japanese culture and films of Jim Jarmush, he creates massive paintings...

`Shadow Within` Norway/USA 2010-2013 70 cm x 110 cm. (28 in. x 43 in.) Edition 6 + 2 a.p. 110 cm. x 150 cm. (47 in. x 59 in.) Edition 3 + 1 a.p. 100 cm x 150 cm. Edition 3 + 1 a....

90 x 120 cm Edition 7 `Residence of Impermanence` 2017-2019 My performance series, `Residence of Impermanence`, explores our relationship to animals, fire and Nature. Through the...

`Residence of Impermanence` 2017-2019 90x120 cm. Edition 7 My performance series, `Residence of Impermanence`, explores our relationship to animals, fire and Nature. Through the element of fire, I have found a way to express myself in totemic ritualistic performance by burning decaying trophy animals. The element of fire is very symbolic. It represents both destruction and creation. Animals and fire have, in many ways, formed our culture since the dawn of Mankind. They have also served as essential symbols in myth, spirituality, art and religion. Fire has protected us and given us hope. Given us a means to evolve in all culture. In Greek mythology, remember Prometheus. In the hand of Man, fire can be anything. It is our ethics that define it. We have always mirrored ourselves in Nature. What we see staring back at us may not be the image we were hoping for. This series is a reminder to where we have come regarding our relation to Nature and the huge effects of climatechange in the Anthropocene. My work often juxtaposes the visually aesthetic and uneasiness. An underlying feeling of that which is lost often plays an important role. I like to explore work themes that emanate a cognitive dissonance in the viewer to reveal more profound truths. I regard trophy animals as symbols of Man´s vanity and presumed victory over Nature. To me, they also serve as symbols of our general attitude towards Nature. The flames gives each animal a last breath of life as it creates a new portrait. The animal is set free again, ending a symbolic circle of life. A closure if you will, both physically and existentially. The English-inspired wallpapers represent imperialism and a colonial idea from a time when we were obsessed by conquering Nature and other lands. These too are burned with the animals symbolizing a protest toward our autocracy towards Nature itself. The repetitive performance of burning each animal serves as both an offering and a liberation. This is a violent act, but also a meaningful and beautiful act to me. The animals` personality changes dramatically throughout the burning process. This cannot be planned and therefore the animals give off a sense of further individuality. In the process of burning animals, I am also taking an object of desire off the market for further sales. An act that hopefully will spark dialog our use of Nature, as well as where we want to be heading in the near future. Dialog foments change and action. I spent seven years collecting old trophy animals and taxidermy of different sorts. Many were bought through auctions, while others were given to me by hunters` or the widows of hunters for this specific project. During the following three years, I went through a somewhat cathartic process of burning and obsessively exploring the symbolism of fire and our relation to animals with my performance. The intention with my series is to connect the public to the crucial matters at hand through something tangible, personal, and symbolic. These three years of working with this series has made me so much more conscious of how delicate nature is and how we have taken it for granted for too long. A reminder of how crucial both animals, fire and nature, for our so-called progress in survival and progress. Through this process, exploring new questions and inviting a larger audience to ask their own crucial questions in the massive global changes we all are witnessing, is what I strive for. Loss of animal diversity, poaching and massive forest fires are increasing so rapidly that Nature itself is at a major turning point. A call for action is needed. Working so close to the animals in my project has been as uplifting as it has been obsessive and heartbreaking, as the animal's eye connects with you on a personal level as a human does in non-verbal communication. In 2016, the government in Kenya burned poached ivory worth an estimated 130 million dollars, making a clear statement that these tusks should only belong to a living animal. This dramatic action created meaningful dialog around the world beyond news and statistics. Fires are destroying critical areas of much-needed land vegetation, thus creating considerable effects on climate change. The meeting between Nature`s fragility and Mans` ego has shown that forests disappear, glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising and species become extinct. Humans have too easily exploited all parts of nature with our own culture and growth. In this short process, we have lost the very essence of what we are a part, and thus forget the very nature in ourselves. What can photography do to create questions regarding climate change, and help us move towards a sustainable future? In photography, we can ask important questions about changes in our surroundings and who we are—Man’s condition. Background: `Residence of Impermanence` has been exhibited at five museums and several galleries already (including a big solo show at Fotografiska, Stockholm (2019), and Arles Fotofestival (2019). Work from `Residence of Impermanence' is currently exhibited at the UCR: California Museum of Photography in Los Angeles with the exhibition `Facing Fire,` Art, Wildfire and The End of Nature in the New West.` This exhibition explores the ever-worsening Californian forest fires due to climate change. My previous environmental work has been nominated for the Prix Pictet Award on several occasions with my previous series for both Earth, Power and Fire themes. In 2005, my series `Arctic Technology` was shortlisted for the BMW Prize at Paris photo (through Scout Gallery, London). My other series has been shown in museums, including a symposium at Johnson Museum, N.Y. and been part of travelling exhibitions with WHATCOM (Museum of Washington) with the exhibition `Vanishing Ice` and a China tour on environmental issues with Three Shadows Photography...

"Signed and dated" With his sculptures, Jim Darbu invites you into a universe where bizarre stories unfolds - a universe where colourful, strange creatures ...

`Shadow Within` Norway/USA 2010-2013 110 cm. x 150 cm. (47 in. x 59 in.) Edition 3 + 1 a.p. Archival ink cotton paper (archival pigment print) `Shadow Within`explores Man`s r...

`Shadow Within` Norway/USA 2010-2013 110 cm. x 150 cm. (47 in. x 59 in.) Edition 3 + 1 a.p. 100 cm x 150 cm. Edition 3 + 1 a.p. Archival ink cotton paper (archival pigment prin...

`Shadow Within` Norway/USA 2010-2013 70 cm x 110 cm. (28 in. x 43 in.) Edition 6 + 2 a.p. 110 cm. x 150 cm. (47 in. x 59 in.) Edition 3 + 1 a.p. 100 cm x 150 cm. Edition 3 + 1 a....

`In;Human Nature` Oslo, 2016 In this series, Christian Houge is inspired by our endeavour to connect Man to both the Cosmos and the Earth. By exploring Nature`s geometry in minero...