Ole Ukena is a conceptual artist that interweaves a variety of media including text, video, photography, drawing & sculpture. Ukena’s diverse media work takes various forms, bound by a common thread of complex simplicity. This unfolding dance between challenging artistic practice and innocent questioning of the “is-ness” of our world defines the very essence of his works. Ukena’s dance often mesmerizes as the juvenile forms an unlikely yet impactful partnership with the spiritually refined. With a wink and a nudge, youthful, playful enthusiasm confronts buttoned-up “maturity”. Sometimes poetically narrative, and in other moments purposefully reduced, Ukena frequently uses language as a tool to build riddles that await completion in the viewer’s mind. His choice of material and medium becomes a metaphor that challenges the status quo. And as his childlike game continues the underlying message invites the viewer into ongoing personal reflection.
As the founder of CRE8 Foundation, Ole engages professional artists and kids worldwide to create collaborative artworks. The workshops and exhibitions draw on collaborative creativity. This serves to verify the power and richness that lies in valuing diversity and authentic self-expression as opposed to conformity.
Creative / Reactive
LED lights, aluminium / 70 x 84 cm / 2011
General Statement
Creation: the act of making, inventing or producing, moving forward.
Reaction: a reverse or opposing action or tendency to revert to a former state, moving backwards.
Personal Commentary
It takes so little to change everything. In this case, a “C” is the difference between stagnation and progress. Every day we are faced with the choice of what to do with our time, with our energy, with our circumstances. Why not add to the world by creating instead of simply reacting to what is being given. I don’t want to be ball in a pinball machine, tossed about through a maze of bells and levers. I want to direct what I have to give and make my light glow.
