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Kenneth Alme
My Tarp Has Sprung a Leak
17th October - 22nd November, 2014

Images / Press Release

Rod Barton is pleased to present, My Tarp Has Sprung a Leak, the first UK solo exhibition of Norwegian artist Kenneth Alme. The apparent redundancy of a tarpaulin with holes is a key theme within Alme's latest body of work and is reflected in the shows title, borrowed from Nirvana's seminal Something in the Way. Alme cites the tarpaulins presence in popular culture as a constant trope in My Tarp Has Sprung a Leak; from Laura Palmer's makeshift burial shroud in the opening scenes of Twin Peaks to the father's use of a tarpaulin to protect his family in Cormack McCarthy's The Road. In each of these cases an object that is traditionally used as a protective tool fails to provide the safety desired:

"He pushed away the plastic tarpaulin and raised himself in the stinking robes and blankets and looked towards the east for any sign of light but there was none."1

Alme, however, sees possibility in the broken plastic sheeting and it has become an invaluable tool in the production of his work. Working with each unstretched canvas placed on top of a blue tarp, paint and pigment washes blend from previous uses, each work leaking into one-another. The tarps themselves are then grouped together in fours and stretched, like a canvas, over wooden stretchers. Through this process Alme uses the tarp first as a production tool before elevating its status to that of a painting, this playful approach to media has become a key element of Alme's practice in recent years.

Kenneth Alme (b.1981, Tønsberg, Norway) lives in and works in Oslo, Norway. He graduated with both a BA and MA from National Academy Of Fine Arts/ Kunstakademiet, Oslo and Städelschule, Frankfurt and has exhibited widely throughout Scandinavia and Europe. My Tarp Has Sprung a Leak is Alme's first exhibition in the UK.