Kristoffer Ørum
Twenty years out of art school, and back in it.
A sculptor. Jesmonite, foam, clay, 3D-printed plastic.
A lot of it is waiting for a render to finish.
A portraitist. None of the portraits are of him.
Local. Copenhagen and Aarhus, mostly.
Nothing digital about it. A screen is an object, and objects sit in rooms.
Deconstructed 2D news images drift across a constructed 3D landscape, never pretending to be windows onto reality. Watershed, 2025
The exhibition featured artists working in watercolor and gouache—a medium known for its fluidity and delicate textures—even when their usual practice includes sculptural, video, photographic, or installation-based work. Qua Aqua (Beetroot Texts), 2017
The transcription was done by Google's speech recognition, which is better at place names and brand names than at anything I was trying to say. A Human Pretending To Be An Artist Pretending To Be A Crayfish, 2022
On the one hand, it can be seen as an attempt to resist the grip of major platforms, their data collection, and their opaque models. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
The first part of the project was held at Galleri Image in Aarhus in 2017. Putin's Nose, 2019
One room was painted bright pink with beetroot juice, smelling earthily of childhood beetroot soup, and featured a Russian rap sung by a life-sized copy of Putin's nose. Putin's Nose, 2019
At the same time, I know how effective these images are. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
We are steered by algorithms that curate which images reach us. Watershed, 2025
The work pairs AI-generated images with non-AI captions to build a fragmented narrative of how such systems might emerge—from informal workshops to self-governed infrastructures and locally trained algorithms. Diffused States (Lexington), 2025
Auto Navigate My History is a software-based installation that replays the artist’s own browser history from the past year. Auto Navigate My History, 2014
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
This forms a new layer of mediation—one that is constant, pervasive, and almost invisible. Watershed, 2025
Online, these fragments are assembled pseudo-randomly into a navigable three-dimensional space. Watershed, 2025
They draw on the advertising industry’s most simplified identity categories and support algorithmic preferences. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
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
Rather than corporate development, this speculative trajectory imagines ternary computing as evolving through grassroots cultures of experimentation and resistance. Diffused States (Boston), 2025
The 2017 version included male artists and moved away from explicit imagery toward more abstract works. Sucker Trick, 2017
Algorithms originally trained for advertising are repurposed to remix the town’s architecture and stories into new visions of community and possibility. Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better, 2025
The work presented a speculative interface for interacting with locally trained language models on recycled consumer hardware, quietly resisting the scale and speed of mainstream AI deployments. Diffused States (Boston), 2025
The exhibition dealt with invisible communication systems including Wi-Fi networks, radio communications, and chemical signals that operate undetected around us. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
Some appear edible, some pneumatic, some built from sound or breath. Monuments of a Fictional Past (Kraków Edition), 2025
The piece challenges conventional media formats by introducing poetic, disconcerting aesthetics into mainstream broadcast, encouraging reflection on surveillance, representation, and identity in the digital age. Data Kroppe, 2017
Components included routers, antennas, and cables arranged alongside the biological forms. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The works were presented as productive machines possessing a capacity to carry out operations both as singular units and assembled into larger wholes. Coffee Lake, 2019
Its on-screen lyrics tell the factual story of a 507-year-old clam killed during the scientific process of determining its age. Djurs Øhav, 2020
The exhibition was part of SixtyEight Art Institute's two-year programme "Modes and Notes on the Local". Signal_Crayfish, 2020
Two folders, with texts by medical historian Adam Bencard and by Kristoffer Ørum, printed inkjet and held in 3D-printed R-PETG holders in both buildings. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
In 2025, the project will travel to Krakow, Malmö, Boston, Vancouver, Lexington, and Aarhus. Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better, 2025
It was coded using the then-ubiquitous Flash interactive format. Topographies of the Insignificant, 2010
The work created an immersive environment where digital creatures appeared to coexist with physical artworks. Mundane Monsters, 2022
The installation combined digital and physical media to create humorous and inventive takes on contemporary environmental and technological themes. Mundane Monsters, 2022
One text reads: “In the bottom drawer of my fridge are a few beetroots that have been left there for so long that they have begun to leak red liquid. Qua Aqua (Beetroot Texts), 2017
While not free from environmental impact, this approach reflects an effort to minimize resource use and ecological harm in the project’s production. Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better, 2025
The system operated continuously throughout the exhibition, looping through the history without direct interaction. Auto Navigate My History, 2014
The project examined the invasive signal crayfish species currently displacing native Danish freshwater crayfish. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
NLHspace was initiated in 2006 by artist Nanna Lysholt Hansen and operated as an "always open / always closed" space. Et Andet Rum 2, 2009
Two texts were airbrushed directly onto the wall using beetroot juice for the group exhibition *Qua Aqua* at Koldinggade 12 in Copenhagen. Qua Aqua (Beetroot Texts), 2017
It is in this indeterminate time and space the Brownfield Wonderland exists as it attempts to reimagine the post-industrial brownfield. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022
It combines Live Action Role Playing (LARP), performance art, and sculpture, developed in close collaboration with young participants from across the Nordic region. Mundane Heroics, 2019
The work was structured as a natural history museum display. 3D-printed models represented crayfish body parts modified with technological elements. Signal_Crayfish, 2020