This exhibition features new works by Joel Cole (b. 1968) addressing questions of “identity”, as the title also refers to. For the exhibition, the artist has worked with creating a visual language which makes it possible to discuss ideas surrounding the term “identity”, question the term itself and wonder what it means to have a certain identity.

Joel Cole was born in Minnesota in 1968 and visited the Faroe Islands for the first time in 1986. Ever since, he has had a close relationship to the islands and has lived in the Faroe Islands permanently since 2011.

The artist creates organic artworks made of different kinds of wood and basalt. The wood used by the artist mainly originates from the Minnesota River valley, close to where the artist grew up. The wood comes from trees that the artist himself has cut down and gathered. At the same time, many of the pieces rest on a pedestal made out of Faroese basalt. For this exhibition, the artist has also worked with glass; a new component in his work.

Many of the artworks by Joel Cole have in common that they, in one way or another, refer to ideas surrounding home and origin and the process of moving from one place to another. This comes to view for instance through interesting combinations and juxtapositions of different kinds of wood in pieces that seemingly do not fit together perfectly but create thought-provoking clashes and contrasts.