(Translated from norwegian)
What are you working on?
My preferred medium is photography, but I also work with sculptures, installations, and publications. Occasionally, I curate the odd exhibition.
What inspires you?
When something I thought I knew well and usually overlook suddenly appears in a new and beautiful way.
How would you describe your art and artistic practice?
In my images, I often portray old consumer goods, vessels, and housing structures. The landscape they are in is often as prominent as these objects, and the atmospheric conditions can be intrusive. I'm a photographer who, in a way, wants to be a sculptor, and in exhibitions, I often show my images alongside sculptures in spatial installations. Among my larger projects in recent years are Floor Arrangements (2012–15), where I photographed spray-painted clay lumps on my studio floor, and Pupill (2016), which was a combined garden studio and camera obscura in a botanical garden in Kristiansand. The latter was later shown in the skylight hall at Kunstnerforbundet (2017) and is currently exhibited at Fotografie Forum Frankfurt in the exhibition Ethereal, which coincides with the Norwegian focus at the book fair this year. In recent years, I have worked extensively with various filters and inversions of my medium format images, as shown at the exhibition Captain's Cabin at MELK in 2018.
Why did you settle in Sortland?
So far, I have never really stayed in one place for very long. My family and I moved from Berlin to Kristiansand in 2014 and lived there for 5 years before moving to Sortland, where the plan is to stay for one year.
What is the best thing about the environment and the place?
In addition to establishing myself in Kristiansand in recent years, I have spent a lot of time in my home regions of Vesterålen and Lofoten. Much of my production and my collaborators are in Oslo. For me, the environment is not necessarily tied to the place I am. Each place has its strengths, and the landscape I am in now is close to my heart.
What do you miss in the local art environment?
The opportunities for producing my work and the chance to see others' exhibitions are, of course, limited here. At the same time, there are many good projects, such as LIAF and Martetta Jaukkuri Foundation. There are also many talented and friendly artists residing in Vesterålen and Lofoten, whom I appreciate staying in touch with.
What are you currently working on?
Right now, I am working on new works for a group exhibition at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in February 2020 and a solo exhibition at Galleri Golsa in Oslo in November. Additionally, I have just started working on my third photobook, which I hope to finish for the exhibition at Golsa.
What ambitions and plans do you have for the future?
I don’t work with a master plan, other than wanting to further develop my photographic project and balance restlessness with security in art and life in general.
Finally: which of your colleagues deserves more attention?
I would like to highlight Marie Svindt. Her photographic project has long fascinated me, and I look forward to her upcoming exhibition at NoPlace in Oslo next year. There are, of course, many other colleagues of mine who also deserve more attention, especially now that newspaper reviews and coverage of visual art are steadily decreasing.
