Kristoffer Ørum
Most of it was built on other people's work.
Some of it only exists as a photograph now.
A portraitist. None of the portraits are of him.
A documentary practice. Every work here has an address and a date.
Works with animals that have not agreed to it.
Solitary. One person decides what is documented and what is forgotten.
One night I dreamt that the cancer might turn the Russian president into a crab, or perhaps a crayfish, and woke to a report that he was dying of cancer. A Human Pretending To Be An Artist Pretending To Be A Crayfish, 2022
Staged as a series of narrative “figures,” the project invents and documents civic architectures that never existed—but perhaps could have. Monuments of a Fictional Past (Kraków Edition), 2025
The sculptures Sovende bænkebider (Sleeping Woodlouse) in three sizes, the middle one in a wheelchair. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
The project treats these everyday activities as data sources capable of producing narratives, insights, and imaginative associations. Day to Day Data, 2008
The project features a map and website highlighting 16 reinterpreted locations in Aalborg. Aalborg Is The Future, 2024
Players are encouraged to question the presumed truth of gravity and their own assumptions, gradually adopting a new perspective through interactive challenges. Disbelieving Gravity, 2013
The work combines AI-generated imagery with human-written captions, forming a dispersed narrative around how such systems might emerge—from grassroots tinkering to collectively governed infrastructures and hyper-local training data. Diffused States (Vancouver), 2025
Students and staff appear as avatars moving within these systems, creating a portrait of the university as a living, shifting organism. A Body Has Many Members, 2012
The signs Prognose eller kaos (Prognosis or Chaos) and a second Leddyrsomsorg in the gallery. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
The exhibition recounted the story of a black magnetic fluid, ferrofluid, that generated forms and figures without human interaction. The End of the Universe as We Know It?, 2007
The Kolding Creature was a virtual three-dimensional creature created from 3D scans of local Kolding pets and conversations with their owners. The Kolding Creature, 2021
The taste of the titanium pigment which is also used as a whitening agent in milk and sugar. Qua Aqua (Beetroot Texts), 2017
In the post-totalitarian context of Latvia, where memory is often manipulated for political purposes, the work offers a reminder that the past is not fixed and demonstrates the fluidity of historical narratives. Monuments of A Fictitious Past, 2024
Additional elements included a video installation where visitors had Putin's face projected over them, making them momentarily become Putin speaking about Russian male superiority and Western decadence. Putin's Nose, 2019
The project asks what meaning remains in news images once they are stripped of context, headlines, and captions, reduced to fragments of colour and form. Watershed, 2025
Exhibition aboard the ship Svartlöga at Ebeltoft Fregathavnen examining climate change scenarios where Djursland becomes an archipelago. Ebeltoft After The Flood, 2021
Central to the work is a fictional universe populated by figures such as Torkild Simonsen, Aarhus' first hip-hop mayor (1982-1997), and Marc Johnston, who relocated Denmark's capital from Copenhagen to Aarhus in 2019. Aarhus'er #1, 2025
Enigmatic posters appear in public spaces where these structures were never erected, and a website hosts an archive with weekly updates on images and stories. Monuments of A Fictitious Past, 2024
The work was structured as a natural history museum display. 3D-printed models represented crayfish body parts modified with technological elements. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
To launch the project, staged reality events and a guided bus tour extended its speculative narrative into the physical city. Radiant Copenhagen, 2009
The work operated as both a functional listening device and a sculptural intervention, questioning the boundaries between surveillance, documentation, and artistic practice. Listening Without Ears, 2019
Her head was made of cardboard squares, and as she walked she produced sad and disturbing sounds audible to late-night strollers and joggers. The Ballehage Woman, 2009
In this scenario, data does not flow through opaque corporate pipelines, but diffuses through neighbourhood workshops, shared servers, and informal archives. Diffused States (Vancouver), 2025
What you see here is just what felt important to document at the time.
During the exhibition, the carefully worded original English text on the exhibition space’s website was gradually replaced by an unstable bilingual text, one sentence at a time. Blind Listening, 2017
Hollow but convincing memories of the potential of what was before, not unlike 3d architectural renderings whose apparent realism hides the hollow and malleable nature of 3d graphics. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022
Signal_Crayfish (2021), the book work, shown in Futurity Library: Disobedient Artists' Books in the Postbook Age at the San Francisco Center for the Book, 25 April to 26 July 2026, curated by bex ya yolk. Signal_Crayfish, 2026
Or the massive folk festival held in Fælledparken the day graffiti was legalised? Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023
The sculptures were inspired by the role-players' own objects and toolkit, translating elements from their gaming practice into interactive art objects. Everyday Heroes, 2019
The English word cancer comes from the Greek for crab: the swollen veins around a tumour were thought to resemble a crab's limbs. A Human Pretending To Be An Artist Pretending To Be A Crayfish, 2022
Diffused States was presented as part of *Data Fluencies: Tributaries*, curated by Roopa Vasudevan, which brought together artists working on the ways data can be resisted, rerouted, or reimagined outside dominant narratives. Diffused States (Vancouver), 2025
The Kolding Creature was unveiled on 30 October 2021 as part of a Kunstwalk featuring multiple artists working in Kolding city centre. The Kolding Creature, 2021
The work was presented at NLH Space in Copenhagen, which was run by The Organisation – Association for Artistic and Curatorial Platforms. Et Andet Rum 2, 2009
An actor dressed as The Ballehage Woman roamed the underbush of Marselisborg Forest near the Ballehage neighbourhood every night at dusk for a month. The Ballehage Woman, 2009
Each network name spells out a fragment of a 31-character text, visible only through the device list of available connections. Wireless Walnut, 2018
The fragmented narrative of Coffee Lake takes place in the grey area between computer-simulated 3D graphics and human imagination. Coffee Lake, 2019
The installation features ephemeral, non-heroic structures that encourage scrutiny of conventional heroic narratives. Monuments of A Fictitious Past, 2024
Yet, as critics such as Allan Sekula have argued, photography has never been a transparent medium; it has always been a construction. Watershed, 2025
The work was exhibited at Vejle Kunstmuseum from March to August 2020, then travelled to Holstebro Kunstmuseum from September 2020 to January 2021. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
Nyt Lys is lit at dusk and switched off at eight. Affluence without abundance, 2025