Cape Fear At the beginning of the 1991 film Cape Fear, we hear the daughter of the family, Danielle played by Juliette Lewis, describing the beautiful and mystical river from which the film takes its name. She continues: “When the only thing to fear on those enchanted summer nights, was that the magic would end and real life would come crashing in.”

We can see this scene as an image of art’s dual conditions. That is, the need to maintain the magic and the inherent unease in daring to enter into new and uncertain audience relationships. Art should of course be able to bear its own weight and have a life of its own, but what does it mean when its foundations are fundamentally unstable?

Interesting art succeeds in demonstrating new possibilities in our seemingly increasingly insecure system. The idea of fake news mixes with climate uncertainty to make it all the more difficult to navigate a society in which the winds of fascism and conservatism blow stronger. However, to stand on the edge of uncertainty is part of the artist’s life. Not least as an art student stepping out into more uncertain circumstances after the world of education. This means insecure employment conditions but also an opportunity to learn together with others how to survive as an artist and find new places for magic.

To take on society’s insecurities on various levels or to show alternative realities, these are important tasks for art and a path that many students set out along. Some of the more interesting points of departure for the current exhibition include quantum mechanics, hoarding, overabundance, mutations, enclosure, recursion, time scales, class, football, grid systems, capitalist realism, the division of labour, streams and silver linings. The exhibition allows everyday and social systems and digital and analogue space to open up to one another in new ways. It will certainly be exciting to follow these students through their future projects.

Palle Torsson
Senior Lecturer in Fine Art