In the forthcoming exhibition Exploded View, new and recent works by Estonian artist Paul Kuimet (b. 1984) and Norwegian artist Magnhild Øen Nordahl (b. 1985) consider the relationship between visual representation and the lived experience of spaces and objects. Curated by Anthea Buys (ZA).
The title, Exploded View, refers to a method of technical drawing in which the components of a functional object, tool or machine are depicted in such a way that their component parts are visible, in order to show how they should be assembled. This taking apart in order to reconfigure is a central metaphor in the exhibition.
Exploded View presents two parallel but intersecting artistic investigations: Kuimet’s new analogue photographic and filmic works take as their starting point hand-drawn architectural plans for domestic spaces. These drawings are transformed by lens-based looking and its material outputs – the alluring depth of analogue photographic surfaces and the distinctive materiality of 16 mm film.
Nordahl’s sculptures are also about journeys of material and visual translation, and her practice is at once research-based and embodied. The works presented in this exhibition look at how we experience objects that have gone through digital and physical abstractions, which in turn lead to changes in form, function and cultural meaning. A juxtaposition of two profoundly self-coherent practices, Exploded View suggests a vital connection between scale, imaging, materiality, embodiement and perception.
Paul Kuimet (b. 1984) is an artist who works with photography and 16 mm film, as well as with installations comprising these media. The indivisibility of a depicted material and the image’s material support is a recurring motif in his practice, as is the tension between formal qualities and narrative possibilities. Modernist building materials such as steel and glass – and, more recently, tracing paper used in architectural drawings – feature in his work not simply as subject matter, but also as malleable material for the creation of new forms and spaces. Since 2022, Kuimet has been an Associate Professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Department of Photography.
His work has been exhibited at institutions including COSAR (Düsseldorf), Draakon Gallery (Tallinn), Tartu Art Museum, WIELS Project Room (Brussels), Tallinn Art Hall, Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt am Main), Kumu Art Museum, and BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts (Brussels).
Magnhild Øen Nordahl (b. 1985) is a visual artist based in Bergen, Norway. Her work examines how scientific and technological abstractions shape objects, environments, and perceptions. Through sculpture, she seeks to unpack and materialize these systems, translating abstract structures into spatial and physical forms. Øen Nordahl recently completed a PhD in artistic research and is co-founder of Aldea Center for Contemporary Art, Design and Technology in Bergen.
Her sculptures have been commissioned as permanent works in public space and exhibited at institutions including MUNCH (Oslo), Lunds Konsthall (Malmö), Bergen Kunsthall (Bergen), Blank Projects (Cape Town), and Palais de Tokyo (Paris).
Anthea Buys (b. 1984) is a researcher, curator, and writer living in South Africa. She is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the SARChI Chair in Art and Visual Culture at the University of Johannesburg, and is interested in collective fabulation, unlikely place-making and the intersections of art and philosophy. Her PhD research looked at New Babylon, the interdisciplinary life’s work of the Dutch artist and architect Constant Nieuwenhuys.
She has curated exhibitions for institutions including Tallinn Art Hall, Hordaland Art Centre in Bergen (where she was director, 2014-2017), Platform Stockholm, WIELS Project Space in Brussels, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Johannesburg Art Gallery and the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town.
Exploded View is open at Kai Art Center from 21 March to 9 August 2026.
The exhibition is supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment, the City of Tallinn, and Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA).