This work was created by me marching back and forth over five frames placed on the floor in the shape of an F, wearing a pair of clogs. I tried to do it in triple time.

Fascist and totalitarian movements are growing stronger in many places of the world in recent times. It is no coincidence that this concurs with the expansion of economic disparities. People in precarious situations are easier to manipulate, and vulnerability opens up for complex responses to the mechanics of power.
Power is an essential component of the subject's autonomy. The ability to make free, independent choices is a prerequisite for its existence. But at the same time, this independence inexorably creates a distance between the individual and the environment. It also creates a gap within, between the self-conscious self and its underlying bodily processes. Out of this alienation arises a desire for belonging that can manifest itself in different ways. One of them is the drive to submit to an external stimulus. To set aside one's rationality and independence in favour of the experience of being part of something greater than one's self, something outside its closed existence. This desire is, in many ways, a bodily response, like how the body responds to a rhythm. There is an attraction here that goes deeper than the subject's self-awareness.

One source of inspiration for this work is Bruce Nauman's "Stamping in the Studio".
But where Nauman wandered back and forth in changing rhythmic patterns, I have chosen to march in a simple triple time beat. The triple time is common in many Scandinavian folk dances. There is a Swedish myth about “the Hårga dance” - a version of the piper from Hameln - about a mysterious fiddler with a big black hat who obscured his face. His music immediately made everyone dance, but then they couldn’t stop. The dance continued all night, and finally, the fiddler led the dancers up to the Hårga mountain, where it continued until the flesh detached from their bodies and only the skeleton remained. A classic piece of music about the myth - “Hårgalåten” - is a hambo which, of course, is a dance in triple time.

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Artist Profile

Born: 1969

Hometown: Stockholm

Based in: Oslo

I am interested in process-based painting and the profound human solitude. While exploring one thing, I sometimes try to formulate something about the other.

My work is made from construction filler in oak frames. I have developed a unique technique, where I insert 6 mm thick layers of grey and white filler into the frame like intarsia, instead of on top of each other as in conventional painting. The result gives a graphic expression that at the same time has tactile materiality. I use some simple but clearly defined methods to apply the filler in the frame. These limit the expression of cognitively controlled processes, thus opening an opportunity to reveal something unknown.

They often take the form of series or installations that extend into the room.

I base my work on the notion of a primary alienation in the human subject. By using painting, I want to formulate something around this lack, or the desire, integrated into our perception of reality. I want to explore whether the problem can illuminate other forms of social and cultural alienation—for example, privileges, class, racism and xenophobia. In short, different types of distances between people.

I have previously shown works in Scandinavia at Konsthallen Trollhättan, Konsthallen Lokstallet, Konstepidemin, Kristiansands Konsthall, Akershus Kunstsenter, Trondheim Senter for Samtidskunst och Tenthaus Oslo. I am educated in Norway at Kunstakademiet in Trondheim and live and work in Oslo.