The opportunity to think about the world we live in was interesting in visiting Oslo in Norway for 4 days. As part of the treeline project initiated and set up by Jaime Jackson this was an interesting opportunity to make new connections and learn about the work of other artists and spaces in another country. The project brief is one on the environment and the global effects we as humans are having on it. My work and ideas as an artist are increasingly being drawn to the way we as humans create and live in the world. Also my work has been moved to how man’s battle with the environment exists and drawing attention to where interesting conflicts lie. To hopefully engage conversation and dialogue about the world we live in.
Going to Oslo was interesting to see on a number of levels. From looking at the city from an ecological point of view to meeting artists and galleries to discuss how they create work.
This trip was also a group exercise as it had been initiated by Jaime within the arts development collective called Black Hole Club that is co-ordinated by Vivid Projects in Birmingham. Along with fellow artist Rebecca Mahay and I arrived first with many other artists from the collective arriving over the next week. Jaime has set up various meeting with galleries, artists and academics over the week so that we could enter into dialogues and make connections with people. For me this was also a chance to explore and reflect on Oslo the place. The trip helped me evaluate and strengthen some of my practice.
After arriving in Oslo on a Thursday evening after taken a train from my home in Nuneaton to Stansted Airport UK. Rebecca and I headed to Notam http://www.notam02.no/web/informasjon/?lang=en for our first meeting. Notam was a space for artists and musicians who were interested in all the areas of sound and music and the arts and lots in between. We first met Gyrid Nordal Kaldestad Who was the director of PNEK (Production Network for Electronic Art, Norway) http://www.pnek.org/ who was in the process of finishing a sound work in the Notam space. Gyrid was creating a piece that was interactive with the space that it was being installed in. What was interesting was that Gyrid had came to Notam to work and collaborate with others to help realise the piece. Using staff at the space helped create the work. It was interesting to see the space in use by lots of different artists and in-house staff helping artists create work. We were looked after well by the director Christian Blom. Who showed us around the facilities and introduced us to the staff and artists working there. They had a really inspiring 360 sound studio with a Hungarian artist working on a sound work. Rebecca and I were able to hear how this work was going and how it was developing.
We also met with Elvic Kongolo and Cato Langnes who were in the process of working on Elvic’s music and interesting mix of Congolese Funk.
This was a space we could come and play with and create new work in. This was inspiring and useful for the future creation of work and experimentation.
Christian the director was also helpful in giving us a variety of new contacts that we can follow up on. Most of these connections were on the subject matter that we were in Norway for, and it will be exciting to see what artists we can engage with to develop the project.
Pictures from Notam
Next event was an art opening a new exhibition by Vanessa Baird a leading artist in fact one the most known in Norway. Having been a recipient of the Lorck Schive Art Prize in 2015 the top prize for Norwegian artists She was presenting work at Kunstneres Hus which is one if not the biggest contemporary arts space in Oslo.
To describe the work I would mention artists like Grayson Perry and a bit of William Morris!? from my UK perspective. The work could be seen as obscene and controversial. I found it invigorating, free and charming in its form and content. This event was a good opportunity to see the how the Oslo art scene works and also gave me a good idea on how to compare it to the UK.
Images from the show.
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Following day was a chance to explore several more galleries and also a chance for myself to explore some ideas I have had about making some work while there.
The sun was bright on Saturday Morning and during the previous day I had found the river the flows down through Oslo fascinating partly as a tourist and partly as an artist. I decided that I wanted to capture this and on this Saturday morning with some good sunlight I managed to. Using my LumoKino Film Camera, Mobile Phone and Sound Recorder I believe I had some interesting visual sketches to make something from. During this visit I had become interested in the river and its many different bridges. I have yet to research the river more but this visit has sowed some seeds of interest relating the use and development of this river.
Images from my exploration and forthcoming film.
After a morning of exploration and shooting I met up with Rebecca and now David Checkley who joined us the previous evening. We headed to Atelier Nord. https://ateliernord.no/en/tor-jorgen-van-eijk-infinite-monologue/ A gallery on the main square in the Grünerløkka area we were staying in. This gallery was a showing a piece by Tor Jørgen van Eijk it was loud and visually arresting using video feedback and an array of monitors and speakers. The work was really skillfully executed and a good use of the space it was in. Which had a history of being a church and created a cathedral like expression of the sound. I spoke to the invigilator of the space and exchanged contact details and we discussed the work on show and also what they have done previously. Including exhibitions on the end of the AM radio signal. This topic had been covered also by the Black Hole Club and the exhibition called Transmission earlier in the year. What was also interesting was a catalogue for a previous show that had taken place called ‘frontiers of solitude’ I was given this as it directly correlated to what we were doing in Oslo as this was an interesting body of work created around ecology and the environment. I have been inspired by this work and intend to read and research more into it.
In the afternoon we visited Podium Oslo http://podium.enterprises/ a space on Hausmannsgate. The current show was called ‘Wall One’ by Ayman Alazraq and Emanuel Svedin though I hadn’t taken the title in until I visited the space. In fact we first walked past it and rejected it as possibly being somewhere else. Once discovered this piece was a revelation in its simplicity and construction, but very deep and meaningful in it’s context. It made me think about how you can use sound to convey emotions more than alot of their work. The simplicity and use of the sense of touch was captivating and inspiring.
After this visit we were joined by more artists in Jaime Jackson and Sally Payen. This led to further discuss and development of the project. This continued the following morning where Kate Spence arrived. Around the dining table of the house we were all staying in was an interesting conversation about the art we were seeing and embarking on as well project at hand. This time spent focusing on wide subject was fascinating to do and helped work out for me what the project could be or develop into.
In conclusion the opportunity to do this has been immensely satisfying I have got to spend time with various artists on the project we are developing. Be inspired by an interesting place and meet some new people who will hopefully be involved in the creation of some new work.
Written by Daniel Hopkins.
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