Oracles, Owls…Some Animals Never Sleep
2021-2012
3D animation, sound
In Oracles, Owls…Some Animals Never Sleep an animated owl delivers a prophetic monologue of aphorisms and latent fragments from I-Ching. The monologue is interrupted by compressed dramatized and distorted samples from Blade Runner—Ridley Scott’s 1982 film adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. These unruly voices are at times menacing yet they are also humorous, doubled – a multiplying self – with unsynchronized dancing and trance-like movements. The owl appears as a visually unstable oracle, breaking-down linguistic structures, and engaged in a squeaky quest to interrogate the notional coherence of self and gender. Oracles are entities that serve as portals to hidden worlds, connecting to what is buried beneath the surface of things. Their messages are usually abstract or coded, which means that we have to learn how they speak. When we try to comprehend their messages and stories we are not just discovering or conversing with these non-human beings, rather we are learning their system, habitat, and language. Yet, Oracles are also tricksters who inform us about the future while breaking rules of coherence and proper conduct. It is a non-human voice that causes language, categories, and identities to shake.
Press and Other Writings (selected):
“Ann Lislegaard”, Jeppe Ugelvig, chartartfair.com (2022)
“Extinct”, Diana Baldon, Press Release, palace enterprise (2021)
“Ann Lislegaard: Extinct”, contemporaryartlibrary.org
“Kunstguide”, Birgitte Ellemann Höegh, Berlingske (2021)
“10 December”, Simon Starling, Kunstkritikk (2021)
“En ugle, der taler til menneskeheden”, Lisbeth Bonde, kunsten.nu (2021)
“New Ecological Sympathies: Thinking about Contemporary Art in the Age of Extinction”, Susan Ballard, Environmental Humanities (2017)
“Ann Lislegaard”, Laura McLean Ferris, Frieze (2015)
“Ann Lislegaard Presents Three Intriguing Pieces”, Ken Johnson, The New York Times (2014)
“Oracles, Owls…Some Animals Never Sleep”, Press Release, Murray Guy (2014)
“Oracles, Owls…Some Animals Never Sleep”, Script
Collections (selected):
Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway (version: “BL1982”)
Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (version: “Borealis”, LED screen)
Jane Anker-Petersen & Jens Therkildsen, donated to ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum (version: “Twilight”, LED screen)
Monika Schnetkamp Collection, Germany (version: “Double shadow”, single screen)
School of Economics, Stockholm, Sweden (version: “Blue”, single screen)
Installation views: Empowerment, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany, 2022; Extinct, Solo Exhibition, palace enterprise, Copenhagen, 2021; Not Without My Ghosts: The Artist as Medium, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, 2022, and Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, 2021; Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, South Carolina US, 2018; Some Animals Never Sleep, Solo Exhibition, CFHILL, Stockholm, 2019; Uncertain Reflections, OR Gallery, Vancouver, 2017; In the Spotlight of the Night – Cities Never Sleep, KAI10, Dusseldorf, 2019
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