Artist YNGVE HOLEN Could Be Our Travel Agent

Berlin-based artist Yngve Holen opens his exhibition Original Spare Part at Stuart Shave / Modern Art in London. Holen’s work explores how industrial technologies—including those of commercial aviation, 3D printing, consumer appliances, and food production—impact daily life. Combining sculpture with various imaging techniques, the artist raises questions about replaceability, the consumer experience, and the ways in which production engineering are represented. Holen shows that digital technology is an extension of industrial manufacturing, and that, like the body itself, our experience of both is characterized by the possibility for enhancement and the risk of vulnerability.

For Original Spare Part, Holen presents a series of sculptures comprised of scale model airliners arranged beneath folds of plastic printed with thermographic images of an empty airline cabin. Sides of meat have been scanned and 3D printed. A video from POV footage recorded by the artist as a passenger onboard various flights is channelled on engraved HD screens.

If you’re not able to attend the exhibition in London, we recommend picking up a copy of ETOPS (2013), Holen’s parody inflight magazine, designed by Per Törnberg and published by Rogaland Kunstsenter, Stravanger, Norway. ETOPS is an aviation acronym that stands for “Extended range Twin Operations,” used to describe twin-engine aircrafts capable of traveling trans-Atlantic distances. ETOPS is also jokingly explained as “Engines Turn Or Passengers Swim.”