Welcome to the vernissage of exhibitions by Hilde Frantzen and Adam Peacock at SKOG on February 5 at 18:00.

RESISTING OPTIMISATION by Adam Peacock is an ongoing series of sculptural drawings and artefacts that responds to the observation that certain identities and performances of self are privileged within online spaces, while others are rendered less visible through the algorithmic logic of platform culture.

The works develop an abstracted visual language that imagines the algorithmic pressures, data-driven classification, and optimisation processes that shape, sculpt, and contour identity, desire, and validation through cyclical systems of measurement and reward.

The reflective surfaces of the stainless steel panels invite viewers to encounter themselves within the visualised volumes, composed of thousands of faceted connections generated through parametric modelling and realised through a collaborative process between machine and human intervention in oil paint. This encounter prompts reflection on how algorithmic systems mediate subjectivity and self-perception, and how contemporary culture is increasingly shaped by algorithmic agendas.

The series asks how identity is formed through processes of privileging and filtering that govern cultural production today, and what it might mean to develop tools that allow users to navigate, interrupt – or maybe even resist – the gamified logic of algorithmic optimisation, engaging digital environments with greater agency and authenticity.

In ALTERNATIVE ATLAS Hilde Frantzen works with textile landscape measurements. A practice she calls Alternative Atlas.

In this project, she follows a fixed method in the process toward new works. She paints patterns onto textiles, which she then brings out and places in different landscapes. She lets the textile fall into cracks in rock, drape over stones, or sink into the sea. The painted textile adapts to the terrain, the sea, or the wind. Nature leaves its marks—pressing, pushing, and moving the textile—and thus becomes an active co-creator. Hilde documents and registers these processes and finally transforms the measurements into embroideries, where she continues working with different types of thread, creating volume and new landscapes.

Alternative Atlas emerges from her desire to understand how we live in, use, and affect the landscapes around us. At a time when nature is measured through large systems, satellites, and technologies that often create distance, she seeks a more intimate and tactile method. She measures the world with textiles, allowing the body, the hand, and time to be the most important tools.

The threads in the embroidery remain as quiet witnesses to the time invested, reminding us that nature also works slowly, in rhythms that do not always align with the human pace.

The project challenges how we understand and map the Earth. Rather than viewing landscapes as something to be controlled or divided, Hilde aims to create maps that reveal connections, movement, and vulnerability—maps that invite care rather than ownership.

Her works contain an openness that allows the viewer to fill in their own landscapes: a boundless atlas that makes room for other experiences, memories, and possible futures. The strict pattern meets nature’s organic forms, and in this encounter a space emerges between control and chance, between order and the unruly.

About the artists

Adam Peacock is a British research-led artist and designer based between Oslo and London, working across installation, sculpture, drawing, and digital media. His practice examines how contemporary identities are shaped through technological infrastructures, with a particular focus on the body as a site of data inscription and optimisation. His work engages with the material residues of digital systems, exploring algorithmic identity, visibility, and the performativity of online selfhood through physically grounded forms.

Peacock is currently undertaking a PhD in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research focuses on queer masculinities, digital economies of visibility, and the commodification of selfhood, exploring how platform logics and AI-integrated systems structure desire, value, and validation. These concerns often materialise as sculptural and diagrammatic works that translate speculative design and critical theory into objects and spatial installations. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at Vigelandmuseet Oslo, Fashion Space Gallery London, Royal Scottish Academy Edinburgh, Science Gallery Melbourne, and Visible Futures Lab New York. He has collaborated with institutions such as PRAKSIS Oslo and the Royal College of Art, and his research has been featured by the BBC and published in peer-reviewed journals and books, including with Bloomsbury Academic. Alongside his artistic practice, Peacock’s teaching and applied research engage critically with media design, fashion, and emerging technological cultures.

Hilde Frantzen (b. 1982, Larvik) lives and works in Oslo. She is educated at the Bergen School of Arts and Crafts, holding a bachelor’s degree from the textile department and a master’s degree from the Academy of Fine Art. In recent years, Frantzen has exhibited at, among others, the Autumn Exhibition, the Contextile Biennial, and the West and East Norway National Exhibition. She has had solo exhibitions at Babel Visningsrom for Kunst in Trondheim, Soft in Oslo, and Hi10 in Skien. This year, she is also participating in the Annual Exhibition at Lillehammer Art Museum and the Eastern Norway Exhibition.

Hilde Frantzen & Adam Peacock

Tor Simen Ulstein & Gunn Harbitz