Ordbok (Dictionary) is a project Cecilia Jiménez Ojeda has embarked on where she will (allegedly) reproduce the more than thousand illustrations adorning an old Spanish dictionary she has had since childhood. Alongside a selection of these reproductions, ranging from simple diagrams to more elaborate depictions of plants and animals, her exhibition Dictionary I at BO features two detailed interior drawings based on cropped out sections of family photographs. A few of her pictures have also been inserted into amended used furniture that serve as expanded frames, suturing Jiménez Ojeda’s meticulous draftsmanship to a less refined, somewhat worn early 90s Scandinavian home environment. If we take a bird’s eyeview of Jiménez Ojeda’s work over the last few years, it resembles an autofiction that keeps returning to problems of biographical background and the drive to be free of it. Artists’ biographies are namely not just a resource; they also get in the way of the artwork, drowning it out with the sentimental allure of the real. If Jiménez Ojeda’s furniture frames are stand-ins for the sticky pathos of her biography, Ordbok I offers a model of the artwork where the image has reconciled with its displacement and willingly retreated into a miniscule form.
Cecilia Jiménez Ojeda (f. 1982) is an artist with a MFA from KHiO, The National Academy of the Arts in Oslo. Her works have been exhibited at Kunstnernes hus, Galleri F15, Destiny’s, Standard (Oslo), QB Gallery and The National Museum of Contemporary Art. Jiménez Ojeda’s works have been acquired by KORO, Oslo Municipality, and Storebrand. Her next solo exhibition will be presented at Standard (Oslo) in the fall of 2024.
«Dictionary I» has been realized with the generous support of the Arts Council Norway, and the Visual Artist’s Relief Fund.
