PORTAL, 2009-2020.

COLLAGE AND WATERCOLOR

Portal is a series of about 55 works on paper (collage and watercolor), made over an eleven year period.

The series takes its cue from illustrated covers of books and films. More specifically, illustrations in which the story´s characters, landscapes, objects and events blend together in the picture plane, superimposing them. These cover illustrations are a visual break-down of the story into an amalgam of what is believed to be the story´s key aspects, As in dreams, space and time become fluid and scalable, emphasising the personal experience and quest of its protagonist(s). An often used tool in this regard is that of silhouettes and nested images within them. This visual convention is quite exclusive to that of illustrated books, allowing the silhouette of a person to also be a landscape wherein the same person takes part in a key event, for example.

These interests prompted me to look for an illustrated storybook I could process in a similar way. The source book became an illustrated bible for children, as it contained a myriad of pictures done in a homogenous style. The objective was to have the book undergo a dreamlike processing, disregarding the written stories and focusing instead on its images, colors and shapes, and the power it may have had on its audience (children).

As the source book was executed in watercolor, it prompted me to paint additional watercolor elements, which were cut and pasted along with the original source images, attempting to make the watercolor medium a visual protagonist of its own.

The motifs show layers of images within images. The domain of a nested image can be apparent or only hinted at, each image a separate world or moment - the silhouette becoming the portal between these planes. Some objects and watercolor shapes have the ability to move through the layers, while others stay contained within a shape.

Five works were exhibited at Kösk in 2020 - see interview below.

Three residencies were offered to me during this work: Krabbesholm Højskole in Skive, Denmark (2009), Nordisk Kunstnersenter in Dale, Sunnfjord (2009-2010), and at the W17 Residency Program at Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo (2011-2012).