Overview

There is an island located between Greenland and the North Pole called Spitsbergen or Svalbard (“the cold land”). The seclusion of the island results in its having the cleanest atmosphere in the world and being one of the best places to do astronomical, meteorological or climate research. Hence, the remote and pristine landscape is marked by installations of technological and scientific equipment. Since 2000, Christian Houge has been making large-scale panoramic images in this landscape, exploring the human presence in this bleak yet beautiful site. Making reference to art forms as diverse as traditional landscape painting, the photography of Bernd and Hilla Becher, and the Land Art of Walter De Maria and James Turrell, these images provoke a meditation on one’s place in the universe.

 

On the island of Spitsbergen is a Soviet-era coal-mining town, Barentsburg, with a population of 800. Houge visited the community repeatedly and in images that do more than just document the work sites, schools, and cafeterias where the people live, has captured something of the human instinct to survive under adverse conditions.

 

Taken as a whole the exhibition moves from the sublime to the mundane with sensitivity and unique insight.

 

Christian Houge was born in 1972 in Norway, where he lives and works. He has exhibited in Oslo, London and New York. This is his first solo exhibition in San Francisco.

Works
  • Digital panoramic landscape photograph of a singular petrol pump underneath a shining overhead light The illuminated pump contrasts with the mountainous blue arctic landscape behind it
    Christian Houge
    Petrol Pump in Moonlight, 2001
    digital c-print
    26 x 78 3/4 inches/66 x 200.2 cm
  • Digital panoramic landscape photograph of two tall antenna amongst a bright white arctic mountainous landscape The two antenna show similarities with ship masks hence the title of the piece
    Christian Houge
    Sunken Ship, 2001
    digital c-print
    26 x 78.8 inches
    68 x 200 cms
  • Blue toned digital panoramic landscape photograph of a giant scientific instrument in the middle of an arctic tundra whose shape resembles a large satellite dish At the top of the instrument a red light glows and illuminates the interior of the dish
    Christian Houge
    Winternight, 2002
    digital C print
    39 x 118 in
    99.1 x 299.7 cm
  • Digital panoramic landscape photograph of a green toned eerily lit indoor swimming pool with one swimmer sitting down on a distant bench
    Christian Houge
    Oleg, 2001
    digital c-print
    19 3/4 x 59 1/8 in
    50.2 x 150.2 cm
  • Digital panoramic landscape photograph of a snowy abandoned beige brick building in Russia On one side of the building a large mural of a birch forest has been propped up providing a contrast to its surrounding arctic environment
    Christian Houge
    Therapy wall, 2002
    digital C print
    19 3/4 x 59 inches/50 x 149.9 cm
  • Digital panoramic landscape photograph of an abandoned minimally furnished room with a long wall On the long wall a blue toned mural of an mountainous arctic landscape has been painted
    Christian Houge
    The Last Party, 2006
    digital C print
    19.7 x 59 inches
    50 x 150 cms
  • Blue toned digital panoramic landscape photograph of two dome shaped scientific hubs amongst the icy tundra
    Christian Houge
    Spheres in Moonlight, 2000
    Digital Cprint
    26 x 78 3/4 in
    66 x 200.2 cm
  • Digital panoramic landscape photograph of a field of antenna with the arctic mountainscape of Svalbard in the background
    Christian Houge
    Antenna Forest 2, 2010
    digital c-print
    39 3/8 x 118 1/8 in
    100 x 300 cm
Installation Views