An inquisitive layman overhearing a rather technical discussion about quasars, may feel inclined to
query: “What is this thing, quasars, anyway?” and the astrophysicist shall most likely admit that they
do not actually know for certain; but with a sufficiently strong telescope, mounted on a spacelab,
situated somewhere outside the earth’s atmosphere, they hope someday to find out… “I can see how
that would help. And then continues the quidnunc, “you might also find out something about these
mysterious tachyons?” To the scientist the disclosure of such stupendous illiteracy is merely
amusing: “Oh no, my good man: that is a totally different thing altogether. Tachyons can’t be
discovered, like quasars, pulsars or even “black holes”. They are entirely theoretical entities. They
were invented, February 22nd, 1969, by a Dr. Sudarshan at the University of Texas. We’ve got their
number – it is imaginary!”
There is, according to the scientists, no way we can study tachyons, as we study quasars, pulsars
and whatever – in order to find out about their “nature” or what they actually are. Thus, it seems, the
formulation, “What is this thing?” is bound to state different kinds of questions, dependent upon
what kind of “thing” one aspires to determine.
And there are still other kinds of “things” … Such information as, for example: “The Medieval Ages is
the time in human history from 476 A. D (Odovaker becomes the King of Rome) to 1492 A. D
(Columbus crosses the Atlantic)”, or: “Purple is a colour between red and blue” – etc., they may well
be said to be true or correct insofar as they are in accordance with some quite commonly accepted
convention. They cannot, however, be corroborated or refuted (or even corrected) by employing, say,
a time-machine, or some refined instruments for spectral analyses. When concerned with a kind of
“things” such as purple or The Medieval Ages, the answer to a question: “what is this thing…” would
most properly be comprised in a reference to some more or less universally accepted conventions of
language use.
But knowledge is again something entirely different. It is like no other kind of “thing” mentioned so
far. None ever subtly refined, sophisticated gadgets or tricky contrivances are ever to unravel its
“(true, real…) nature.” This in spite of unfortunate, but undeniable cases where philosophers,
beguiled by a deceptive metaphor, came to conceive of “knowledge” as though it were, in a way,
something resembling a pneumatic dispatch, a posted packet to be “unpacked” by what Nineteenth
and some early Twentieth Century philosophers called: “conceptual analysis.” Neither, needless to
say, is “knowledge” a novel, new-fangled phrase, found or fabricated by some insidious scientist.
Nor is it an easy task to elicit, even limited, discernible, semantic-pragmatic conventions,
circumscribing the general employment of “knowledge”. And as if only to add to the perplexity, the
whole semantic-pragmatic imbroglio is peculiarly and unequally chaotic in English, the only modern,
basically Germanic tongue to retain the entire host of homonyms from Common Teutonic, – while at
the same time hatching a whole hive of additional equivocalities en route to its modern form. “I
know”, as a locution in all English speaking language communities, admits of such a unique
multitude synonymic alternatives as would solely excite etymologists and philologians within any
other Indo-European language.
Arild Tveito (b.1976, Oslo)
Artist, linguistic sedatist and entheomycologist, founder of the Norwegian Entheomycological Society,
editor of the book Attempt to Explain the Berserk Frenzies of the Old Norse Warriors on the Basis of
Natural History, cofounder of the artists’ collective Institutt for Degenerert Kunst and Galleri Annen
Etage (det forbudte galleri).
Studied in Kokkola, Oslo, Munich and Vienna and graduated in Oslo, 2010. He has presented his
work in recent solo exhibitions at Dortmund Bodega, Oslo (2010), and Galleri Annen Etage, Oslo
(2009) and in group exhibitions at D.O.R Gallery, Bruxelles (2011), Subtext Projects, East/West
Galleries, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas (2011), Kunsthall Oslo, Oslo (2010), Johan
Berggren Gallery, Malmö (2010), NP Gallery, New York (2010), Al-Mahatta Gallery, Ramallah
(2010),
Wiels, Bruxelles (2009), Landings, Vestfossen (2009) the Museum for Contemporary Art, Oslo (2009),
Skaftfell & the Dieter Roth Academy, Seyðisfjörður (2007), among many others. He has made public
work in collaboration with Anders Nordby at Ilseng County Jail, (KORO). And is also represented in
public collections such as: Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö (2010), and the Norwegian
Entheomycological Societiy´s Collection, Oslo (2009).
PODIUM
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Oslo, Norway
Utstillingen åpner i 13.05.11 kl. 22:00
Utstillingen er åpen Lørdag og Søndag fra kl.13:00 – 15:00
