Ragna Bley

After walking a long time on a trail close to the sea, we passed a church and graveyard in the most idyllic setting. You know when the grass seems unnaturally green, and the wind in the birches make the branches move like a red carpet gown. We came up a hill onto a pedestrian road, crossing two roads out of four in a roundabout. I asked the person next to me, whom I care about very much, how they would want their body to be treated when they die.

"There is a new invention" was the response, "a kind of net, or bag, which enhances the speed of your body’s decomposition, the bag is full of spores of mushrooms that will start growing in contact with moist surroundings". I imagined that naked body that I know so well, in a dark space, with a netting and white, thin, slightly luminous mushrooms growing all over it.

"Like the Hattifattener" I said, and laughed a very short laugh.

Ragna Bley (b. 1986, Uppsala SE) lives and works in Oslo. Bley received her BFA at The Oslo Academy of Fine Arts in 2011 and her MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London in 2015. Recent solo exhibitions includes Zooid at Kunsthall Oslo (2017) and Pine Pitch at Hester, New York (2016) Selected group exhibitions include UKS, Oslo (2016); Galleri Brandstrup, Oslo (2016); Bosse & Baum, London (2015); Royal College of Art, London (2015); 1857, Oslo (2015); Kunsthall Oslo (2015); Taiga Art Space, St. Petersburg (2014); Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2014). Bley’s work is currently included in the 9th edition of the Norwegian Sculpture Biennal. Upcoming projects and exhibitions includes a residency at Rupert, Vilnius, a solo exhibition at 109 Trastero, Palma de Mallorca, exhibition at Nuuk Nordisk Kulturfestival, Nuuk, Greenland and a solo presentation at Kabuso Art Center, Øystese, Norway.

On view by appointment through July 30th