In my attempts to challenge the traditional concept of the white cube I create exhibitions in public or private settings such as in the city streets, shopping centres, people`s homes, to name just a few. 

Prophecy

The arts- and performance festival Høstscena invited me to be their festival artist for  the 2022 festival. An honour for me and a good oportunity to twist my brain and fingers. Doing a show for a festival like this  involve interpeting a theme The work of the hand, set by the artistic leader of the festival. It involves a more intense showing of the work as eople will come by several times. The venue is visualy challenging as it is a space often used ofr for concerts and talks. 

THE WORK OF  HAND
This might be about hands. Or it might be about the result, the product , the consequece  of what one creates with ones hands. The craft. In my interpetiation I choose to dwell on what is between the hand and the work  - the action.  The actions I am working with are those who has multiple purposes or  where the outcome is uncertain. 

From this idea I have made a large scale installation with the title Prothecy. The installation consist of large scale mobile objects and figures made of cardboard and suspended from beams in the ceiling. The objects are movable by the of pulling strings . Due to the large dimention of the figures (3 - 4 meters high) the action of pulling the strings will make the objects parts kick and clash rather hevily. The fragility of the cardboard and the force of the pull and the crash  when  the string is released makes quite an impact. 

Studio view. Large  scale zebra . Cardboard an oils, but still no strings

PENANCE
On the third day of the exhibition there will be an interactive / perfromative work in the show.  A small  booth made of  a frame and a surrounding curtain is placed in the installation.  The visitors are asked, through a sign, to rememeber something they have done but regret doing. An action the  person wish undone.  Then the person is asked to enter the booth and read this instruction: 

Think about sometshing you have done but wish undone.

Rate your action on a scale form 1 to 5

Take a card from the pile in front of you matching your rating 1 to 5 

On the card you can read an instruction to  a pendance for your action. 

Read the card and keep it. 

 
The penance is available for 24 hours from 13.00 Friday to 13.00 Saturday

 
FIGHT
On the last evening of the show, day four, a boxing ring is set up un the exhibition.  At 21.00 in the evening there will be a boxing match in the exhibition performed by boxers from Ålesund bokseklubb (Boxing  Club). The fight is a part of the exhibition. It markes the finale of the show Prophecy. A finissage.

Research: Visiting the boxing club Ålesund bokseklubb

Througout the exhibition the audience is encouraged to touch / pull strings / and handle the work as they please.


COLLABORATIONS
As the festival artist I also have a collabroration with the High School  Ålesund  Videregående skole.  More than 40  2nd and 3rd year students from the Art, Design and Architecture programe  is now involved in my project.  The  students work is inspired by the piece das Kapital Raum by Joseph Beuys.  There are so many hands involved in this project now.

Pace

The jazz musician  Dag-Filip Roaldsnes and myself got together in november 2020 for at two week collaboration at Mottaket in Ålesund. We wanted our time spent together to be about our tools. Dag-Filip chose  to bring his pump-organ to Mottaket and I decided to work with charcoal and paper.  The two of us had never previously collaborated  and our work is not really connected. However our differences was a trigger to learn from each othhers processes. Our plan was to have no plan. We turned up at Mottaket with out tools, me with my charcoal and a 10 m roll of paper and Dag-Filip with his organ, a small notebook, a small pile of music-sheet  and a pencil. 



We just started working. He started making  long, dwelling sounds on his organ and I  started brushing powdered charcoal on the white paper.  For long spells we apused pur work and talked about what we were doing and what we were searching for. The first few days we both went into a phase where we  held back. The pursuit was to do as little as possible but still move forward. Like pushing the accelerator and the brake at the same time.  All though I did not draw what he was playing and he did not play what I was drawing, our work was clerarly rubbing off on each others.  We discovered an apparent link between the aesthetics of the  dry and naked wooden sounds of the pump organ  an the charcoal on the paper. It  was  all very pietistic. And we loved it. 

Some days into the project we opened up the doors to an audience. We both talked a little about how we approched this project and then we dis a session of working next to each other  while the audience watched and listenend. What a fantastic evening this was. 
Photo: Bent Erik Myrvoll

I believe

What do people believe in? What have people around us figured out? In the project I  BELIEVE I bluntly  ask people I meet “What do you believe in?” I set up shop in the artist project venue Mottaket in Ålesund and more than 30 people came by and talked to me about this difficult topic. These conversations have been some of the most interesting I have had. Ever. It was like opening a tap. Words came pouring out. I made notes form the conversations and brought these bakc to my studio for further work.   
You can see my documentation of this project in my blog.

Performative actions in Valderøy Church

During av weekend in March 2018 I performed the two pieces “Equation” (“Ei likning”) and “Relic” (”Relikvie”) in Valderøy Church, in Norway. These actions were performed in the side-aisle of the church and in dialogue with my displayed painting “The Beast / Best of human behaviour” .



Equation is a four hour long performative action where i work with chaos and order. I start off with the room beeing in order with benches along the sidewalls, and chairs stacked in neat rows. During the performance the order of the room is altered by my moving of every object in the room about. Through the four hours i change the expression of the room from being orderly and predictable, to disaray, to grouping, to  systemiczing, to making symetrichal paterns, to putting everything back in order.