H O M E
By spotogspindel | May 26, 2013
Today I opened my solo-exhibition in Moster Amfi as this year´s chosen artist for the Mostrafestival & historic play. This year is special since it is also the main event weekend for Bømlo municipal to celebrate their 50 year anniversary.
Above is the poster for the exhibition, and below you can see pictures from the actual exhibition. I called the exhibition “HEIM” which means “HOME”. And it is in many ways a tribute to the island where I´ve grown up. This is where my roots are, this is my horizon.
Below is what I consider to be one of the main pictures in the exhibition. Slåtterøy, Norway´s largest light-tower, with the strongest light in all of Northern Europe stands tall at the Northern tip of Bømlo.
Unfortunately I don´t have any photos from the opening, but Amalie Nilsen had a lovely speech and Trio Vest played beautifully!
The main room seems carved out of the mountain, with two of the walls completely in solid rock. The pictures were mounted on thin wire, and appeared to be suspended in space, floating midair. Such a beautiful and raw setting for my art! (At the bottom of the post, you can see better versions of the pictures themselves)
Almost all of the art was made especially for this exhibition, with motifs from around Bømlo. But I did add a couple of less site-spesific motifs too. I just can´t refuse old boats!
While being interviewed by a journalist before the opening, I suddenly found a name for my art: I´m a coast-romantic! (Or “coastal-romantic”, I´m not sure which sounds better translated)
But I do think that coastal-culture is a lot more than old wooden boats! So very much more. It´s our everyday life, the way we choose to live our lives, what is important to us today, here and now. Coastal-culture isn´t defined by the past, it can just as well be the present. It´s not all about rowing-boats, it can just as well be supply-ships. It´s not necessarily fishing nets, it can just as well be farmed salmon in meres.
But to repeat myself. I do love old boats! A bit rusty, with bulges and scrapes in the paint, boats with history, boats with a silent story untold. I want to tell that story. Visually.
The same goes for the landscape. All the waves, year after year after century after century, that have washed these shores clean of anything but the raw truth. There is a special light, a certain longing, the fresh smell of salt. It needs to be experienced, it cannot be explained.
But back to the exhibition. Another two rows of pictures. The ones above are all made as photo-collages, the ones below are collages made of paper and oxidized metal-mesh.
All in all it´s 48 art pieces in this show.
“Make Waves”. That´s a pretty good motto, I think.
The only picture directly connected to Mostraspelet (the local historic viking play) is of when a young viking gets his first sword.
The third room in the exhibition area is the café. The warmth in the solid wooden wall matches the warmth in my pictures.
A winter motif from the north of Bømlo. “Waiting for winter, waiting for spring”
Two painted pictures, acrylic on wood.
Not everyone has a lot of wall-space, so I also made a bunch of cushions, all unique, with a silkscreen print of the naked rock faces again from Slåtterøy.
Let me show you some of the pictures in real-light, as the colors truly are. I´ve added the names and sizes underneath each one. Mind you, because of the shape of the website, some of the largest pictures look really small here, and some of the small pictures look big in comparison.
“The most beautiful place on earth… on a good day”, 50×150 cm
“Completely crooked!”, 40×650 cm
“Grønstein” (“Greenschist”), 40x60cm
“Who can row without oars?”, 40x60cm
“Even boathouses play hide-and-seek”, 35x80cm
“Røyksundkanalen”, 40×60 cm
“My childhood´s summers had warm hay drying”, 60×80 cm
“The Lobster-farm”, 30x60cm
“I am sure Siggjo once was a volcano!”, 50x100cm
“… and dream of the sea”, 40x60cm
“Obligation”, 40x60cm
“Little Torolf gets his first sword”, 60x80cm
“Wichmann-men/ real men!”, 70×100 cm
” Such nice algae in the seabed”, 40x50cm
“Seahouse door gone wild/if these walls could talk”, 40×50 cm
“old wooden boats don´t forget their childhood archipelago”, 60×80 cm
“Red tower”, 23×28 cm
“The smaller waves wander home for the evening”, 60×80 cm
“Tjong”, 30×40 cm
“On a good day, you can see all the way to Iceland”, 60×80 cm
“Våge”, 30×40 cm
“Sometimes in the summer, you can even swim in the sea!”, 40×60 cm
“In between a longing/ longing out – longing home”, 35×70 cm
“Red teahouse”, 50×60 cm
“The best summer has warm naked rock faces”, 40×60 cm
All these pictures are for sale, so if you should be interested, you can contact either me or Moster Amfi.
Topics: Art, exhibition | 5 Comments »
May 26th, 2013 at 23:02
Aaaah, lovely Janne! That space is a really nice fit with your imagery, which is evocative and beautiful. Also – congratulations on being the chosen exhibitor, yey!
May 28th, 2013 at 09:23
gorgeous Janne!!! i only wish i could see it in person. 🙁
LOVE your “main” piece!… well, i love them all of course, but that one is especially beautiful. xoxo friend.
May 30th, 2013 at 04:28
Wow! This all looks so beautiful. Congratulations and making such a beautiful display of your wonderful art. And thanks for the virtual tour 🙂
June 2nd, 2013 at 14:03
Amazing! You are such a diverse artist, and I love every piece more than the one before. Congratulations!
June 5th, 2013 at 04:19
This looks like a fabulous exhibit, Janne! Congratulations! I so wish I could have seen it in person – I guess you’ll just have to send it on tour through the States and Canada!