”Hence, illusion and reality, fictions and perception are central
notions in Larsens`s art. He questions what it is that we really see,
and what we think we see – he makes us insecure about what is so common
that we would normally scarcely notice it. By doing this he opens up
new perspectives – through a curious and playful attitude, Larsen uses
art to examine his surroundings and to comment on the tradition in
which his art is placed.
He defines the artistic process partly as a sorting out of impulses and
impressions from everyday life, and partly as a unlimited reach of them
based both on the unlimited reach of fantasy and an ironic attitude
that creates enough distance to allow the artist to view his own role
and work with a critical eye.” From The essence of things.
"This exhibition at Rogaland Art Museum includes a number of artists
who try to do just this - the stated Utopian intention of extending
reality may serve as a motto for this art. A couple of the artists
place today's Utopia in art itself. Yngvar Larsen's gilded pea recalls
Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale about the princess on the pea, in
which the pea indeed ends up in a museum, thus becoming the world's
first exhibited ready-made. Larsen encapsulates it in precious
material, giving us art as a sealed-off, Utopian sphere." From Art Of
Human Scale, by Trond Borgen, Stavanger, Norway
