Mikkel McAlinden is one of eight photographers whose work is presented on the portal Norway - the official site. The photographs have been selected by Preus Museum, Norway's national photography museum. Fragments of a total of 40 photographs are shown in the top field of the portal. If you click on these pictures you will get up information on the photographer and his or her photographs that are shown elsewhere on the portal. The project gives Norwegian photographers an opportunity to show their work to a wide audience all over the world.
Biography
Mikkel McAlinden was born in Oslo in 1963. Since 1983 he has exhibited continuously in Norway and abroad. His work is included in many national and international collections amongst them the Fond National d’Art Contemporain in France.
Then I went back into the house and wrote, It is midnight. The rain is beating on the windows. It was not midnight. It was not raining.
Samuel Beckett - Molloy
Within the information hierarchy, the Photograph is a strange and difficult messenger. The logical part of my brain realises that this apparition is not reality. It is a flat facsimile that lacks proportion, odour, intimacy, interaction and a myriad of other sensations we associate with physical experience. The other part of my brain – the adventurous and curious one – is busy filling in the blanks. This “what if” is a kind of unwritten contract between the photographer and the viewer. My ideas and projects are often an investigation into the headlines and small print of this contract.
When we first see an engaging or attractive image, there is a brief moment of non-cognitive communication, akin to intuition or falling in love. This moment ends when the logical reflective part of the brain kicks in and renegotiates the contract. I believe that this magical moment, before “the lawyers” arrive, is an extremely complex interaction relating to purely visual aspects of experience.
One problem with the Art Object is that we are brought up to believe in a hidden message. A secret that is carefully hidden within the work. This secret is crouched and alert, waiting to reveal itself to the worthy viewer – and how we all want to be that viewer! Instead I would like to think of the art object as an arena containing many different “secrets”, the key being contained in each individual viewer. The images I make are a proposition to the viewer. To let their personal, subjective reality and history intermingle with the image, into an area that is both new and yet strangely familiar.
Pirate
The Fly
The Last Farwell
Hans & Grete
The Impasse
The Evil Cottage