It will never not be midnight
Nadine Byrne
85 analogue slides
3 overlapping Kodak Carousel slideprojectors
Stereosound
32.15 min
Videodocumentation of the work being installed in the exhibition
It will never not be midnight at The Swedish Museum of Performing Arts
Stockholm 20.04.24 – 09.06.24:
The text narrated in the work can be found here
Presentation/ Synopsis
It will never not be midnight is an audiovisual work originally commissioned by Elektronmusikstudion, the renowned centre for Swedish electroacoustic music and sound-art, as the official work for their 60th anniversary celebration. A part of the commission was gaining access to the archives of The Swedish Museum of Performing Arts, The Music and Theatre Library of Sweden and the Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research. It will never not be midnight emerged after taking inspiration as well as collecting material from these archives, preserving the past as it is gently handled and integrated in the present.
Photographs colored by hand and collages seamlessly float in and out of each other through the means of three overlapping analogue slide projectors, accompanied by a sound composition of electronic music and a voice narrating a poetic story divided into two acts.
Act one is centered around themes of loss, exploring remembrance ability to preserve fragile connections to places and people who are absent. Images of domestic interiors, different projections of a home, become structures containing memories, where the past continues to exist.
In Act two we follow the collapse of boundaries, as the structure of the home has been lost. Three women portray an ambiguous state of being where limits and borders merge in and out of each other. Identity, dream and reality are all in continuous flux.
Biography
Nadine Byrne (*1985) is an artist based in Stockholm. She studied at the Royal Institute of Art
in Stockholm under Prof. Hinrich Sachs and graduated with a masters in Fine Art in 2011.
Byrne has exhibited and performed widely in Sweden and internationally.
Being active also as a composer and musician, she moves freely between the worlds of art and music, most often blending the two.
Byrnes artistic practice includes sculpture, moving and still image, textiles, drawing, sound composition, and writing. These various mediums are often combined in larger interdisciplinary installations. Her work explores recurring themes of ambiguous and liminal states of being such as remembrance, loss, and dreams intertwined with an interest in the inherent meaning and history within materials.
In Byrne’s practice materials, bodies and gestures become enunciators in lieu of language. Enabling connections beyond the constraints of time and space, Byrne aims to bring together multiple temporalities through material, frequently employing a ritual and mythological methodology.
Filmography and exhibitions
2024 It will never not be midnight. Director, script, sound, costume.
2020 Sorgearbete (Work of Mourning). Director, script, sound, script, soundtrack, set-design. Distributed by Filmform.
2018 Dreaming Remembering. Director, script, sound, script, soundtrack, set-design.
2015 Dark Tourism. Director, script, sound.
2012 How Pure is The Journey? Director, script, sound, costume, cinematography. Distributed by Filmform.
2012 Topografi. Director, script, sound, costume, set-design, cinematography. Distributed by Filmform.
2011 And The Sky so Present and Near. Director, script, sound. Distributed by Filmform.
2011 Dream Family. Director, script, sound, script, soundtrack, set-design. Distributed by Filmform.
Solo + Duo Exhibitions
2024 It will never not be midnight, The Museum of Performing Arts, Stockholm
2023 Incoherent fragments of intimacy, Saskia Neuman Gallery, Stockholm
2022 As if it is still there waiting for me, CPR2, New York
2019 Minnesmaterial – Textil Transcendens, Konstakademien, Stockholm
2018 Memories Rise In Images Of Dreams, Narkissos Gallery, Bologna
2018 The Permanent Void, Elastic Gallery, Stockholm
2017 Magasinering av Tid, Sandvikens Konsthall, Sandviken
2015 Battle 20 with Javier Barrios, Pink Cube, Oslo
2015 A Wave Rose Toward You, Elastic Gallery, Stockholm
2015 Dark Tourism, Galleri Box, Göteborg
2014 M E P N B with Marie Plum, Danske Grafikere, Copenhagen
2014 Hi Mom, Verket, Stockholm
2013 Stories As An Opposite To Despair, BLOKK, Bergen
2012 Inward World, Konstnärshuset, Stockholm
2011 Dream Family, Galleri Mejan, Stockholm
2010 EVOCATION, Galleri Oro, Gothenburg
2010 Legends with Danilo Stankovic, Gallery Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm
2010 Dark Mountain, Secret Signs with Ragnar Persson, Wonderland Art Space, Copenhagen
2009 Something and Else with Ruairiadh O´Connell, Annarumma 404, Milan
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 If I Can Not Cry in the Subway, Oksasenkatu 11, Helsinki
2023 In Watte und Nadeln – Konturen von Trauer, Galerie im Körnerpark, Berlin
2022 UNITY, Sic, Helsinki
2022 HEM, Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö
2021 (in) visible, Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö
2020 Sorgearbete, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm
2019 Cartography of Memory, Pina, Wien
2019 Esoterisk Överföring, Studio 44, Stockholm
2019 Waking the Witch, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham, Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury and Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe
2018 Our Winter Show, Steinsland Berliner Gallery, Stockholm
2018 Waking The Witch, Oriel Davies Gallery, Newton
2017 Bland träd gräs och stenar, Bohusläns Museum, Uddevalla
2017 På annan plats, Ystads konstmuseum, Ystad
2017 Painting or Not, KaviarFactory, Henningsvær
2017 Biotop 2017, Biolgiska Museet, Stockholm
2016 Secrets in the Carbon Atom, Podium, Oslo
2016 The First Story Ever Told, Krets, Malmö
2016 Sneakyville, Haugar Vestfold Kunstmuseum, Tønsberg
2015 Island Adaptation III: Native, g39 Gallery, Cardiff
2015 I detta ögonblick, Aguélimuseet, Sala
2015 The Ritual Box, La Rambleta, Valencia
2014 Desorientering vs pluralism, Ronneby Konsthall, Ronneby
2014 Restaurering Av Inre Rum, Charlottenburgs gård, Solna
2013 SHINE, Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall, Arendal
2013 Believers, Varbergs Konsthall, Varberg
2012 WHO TOLD YOU SO?! 4 Truth vs. Family, Onomatopee, Eindhoven
2012 No Me Pongas Los Cuernos, La casa Encendida, Madrid
2012 Deep into Sweden, Art Center, Novosibirsk
2012 Paganism, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar
2012 Adios 4, Alice Gallery, Brussels
2011 Ghost, Gerlesborgs Konsthall, Gerlesborg
2011 XISM, Etnographic Museum, Stockholm
2010 Smell of Pepper, Peter Bergman, Stockholm
2010 News from the Neighbours, Charlotte Fogh Gallery, Århus
2010 Das Swedische Modell, The Forgotten Bar/ Galerie im Regierungsviertel, Berlin
2009 PAPERMADE, Annarumma 404, Naples
Selected Screenings
2023 Topografi, Cnema, Norrköping
2016 Dream Family, Topografi, And The Sky so Present and Near, How Pure Is The Journey?, Zabriskie, Berlin
2014 Dream Family, Museo de la Ciudad, Querétaro
2014 Topografi & Dream Family, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Amsterdam
2012 Dream Family, Current Space, Baltimore, Bold Tendencies, London and Museum of Gavu Cheb, Cheb
2012 Techniques of Ecstasy, Gothenburg International Film Festival, Gothenburg
2012 Dream Family & Topografi, Bucky Dome/Moderna Museet, Stockholm
2011 Dream Family, Ordrupgaard, Charlottenlund
2011 And The Sky so Present and Near, Etnographic Museum, Stockholm
2011 Decennial Celebratory Solidarity Ritual, Galerie Suvi Lehtinen, Berlin
2010 Decennial Celebratory Solidarity Ritual, Shunt, London and Nano Gallery, Zagreb