The last day in Tromso was a lazy sort of wind down day…well, the morning and afternoon were anyway! Spent the morning visiting Blast : http://blaast.no/ a glass design company, at which three women were demonstrating the art of glass blowing and design.
Although I didn’t see any references to Sami ( or Reindeer!) in their work, I could see the constant use of the triangular shape, which is echoed in much of the architecture of the area. I want to use this in some of my own work in future.
It*s our last full day here today and it looks like yet again, we have a full programme of activities!
Before doing anything though, I must apologise to Jet’s wife for not spelling her name correctly in this blog. Although pronounced Lena, it is in fact – Line.
OK, that done…an account of yesterday*s events…
Line picked us up from the gallery to take us to Polaria, where we were to see the infamous ‘Reindeer dance’. I think I was expecting some sort of Pantomime, as there were so many families with very young kids in the audience.
Sat and waited in an auditorium with a triple screen in front of a stage, while dry ice started billowing form the sides.
The centre screen erupted first, with images of reindeer accompanied, by what I can only describe as Bjork type music.
Two contemporary dancers appeared on the screen, performing among the reindeer. While everyone was mesmerised by the screen, the two dancers appeared, in person, on the stage in front.
It was an absolutely spellbinding performance, with the children in the audience sitting silently watching, only occasionally moving to mimic the movements of the dancers. I cannot believe for one second that we would be able to stage anything similar in England, in front of a family audience.
From Polaria, we were dropped off at Tromso Museum, Universitetsmuseet . Firstly visiting a more in-depth Sami exhibition, following the route of Sami culture to present day.
From here, we tried to text our next host – Anne Marie, only to find the network down and we couldn’t contact anyone at all. Looking at the heavy snow falling outside, and being so far from the city centre, we tried to weigh up the alternatives.
Half an hour and several tries later, we eventually saw a van making numerous attempts to get up the hill, before sliding down again. Yep – Anne Marie.
She took us to her house, which, from the front, looked just like a hut in a forest. The inside was warm and welcoming though, with nic naks and artworks stuffed into every available space. She was obviously a collector.
The back of the house had huge windows, that looked out to sea, and her back porch ( decked out and covered) was laden with drift wood that she had collected from the beach.
She then presented us with a glass each of Harveys sherry, before bringing out a huge pot of meat soup, that she probably spent half the morning cooking. To which I had to apologise again for not being able to eat.
Silence …and cheese and crackers were plonked in front of me : (
We were there for quite a few hours, talking about our work….opening a bottle of red wine….sharing an apple strudel. All of the time, staring out at sea with the backdrop of fjords.
It was too late to go anywhere else, so armed with strap on spikes for our wellies that Anne Marie had lent us, she took us to the bus stop for our journey back.
My sleep pattern is starting to get back to normal now ( after spending the first 2 days going to bed well after midnight and getting up again at 06.00 ) so I think, hopefully anyway, I can make more sense in my blog.
Yesterday, we checked out two other galleries that were both within walking distance – Tromso Kunstforening ( Tromso gallery of Contemporary art ) – which was so iced over in front that I can hardly believe people risked their lives to visit! … and Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum – the Art museum of Northern Norway.
Both had really interesting displays of Contemporary art – plus a couple of Munch*s in the latter.
Leaving the museum, we bumped into the director – who we are now on speaking terms with, after he came to our PV. Feel like a *local* already!
We took turns at invigilating at the gallery ( jet taking the first 2 hours ) though, when we returned to it, there were already a few visitors. One – Anne Marie had been to our PV and was waiting for us – to invite us to her house for ‘cake’ this afternoon.
We seem to have quite a busy programme though today, as Jet’s wife ´- Lena, is taking us to see a ‘reindeer dance’ at Polaria today. After which, she will take us to Tromso Museum – to see an exhibition of Sami art …and Anne Marie will pick us up to take us to her house.
It is good to have access to transport like this – but we seem to be mastering the buses pretty well. Jet and Lena invited us to their house for a meal last night. Faced with the prospect of a 300 NOK taxi ride ( each way) to the northern point they live in, we braved the local transport – 27NOK wherever you go on the island.
It was good to eat vegetables and very nice food – though, being a vegetarian, I resisted the reindeer meat that was served. Knowing how expensive it is here – we bought a lot of our own packet food, which we have pretty much been living on.One of the other guests – Sven Egil Duøllja was an artist specialising in Sami culture – which is huge here. He had some images of his work on his phone, but I*ll look up his work properly on the website when I get home.
So I think that it is it, up to date so far.
Although Carolyn is up in the ‘bedroom’ working away on her sketchbook as I*m writing this, I*m relying on notes and the many photographs I*ve been taking, to give me ideas for my next works.
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Although the PV was meant to start at 20.00 last night, people started to arrive just after 19.00. The first guests therefore, had to help us put up the labels.
Considering it was sub zero temperatures and no one knew us, it was unbelievably busy.
I hate to say this, but if the PV had been back home and it was this cold out, we would have been lucky to get just a handful of guests – if any!
http://www.smallprojects.no/trade.html#
The guests had a variety of backgrounds, from members of another artists group – who we will visit before we leave, students, teachers, gallery directors and art critics .
There was an Australian artist at the PV – Laureen Lansdown : http://www.laureenlansdown.com/ who was on a self funded residency, to document and create new artwork about the Northern Lights ( which we were lucky enough to see later that night!)
We were also able to chat and discuss the work of a visiting writer : Easterine Angami : http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/easterine who signed one of her books as a gift to us.
I’m still buzzing with infectious enthusiasm from the artists we have met so far. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a PV where people didn’t huddle around the drinks table and ignore what was on the walls.
At the moment, I’m sitting in the gallery while it is open to the public, so I thought I’d use the time to type up the blog.
I know I’ve missed things out, but a least if I get things down in some sort of note form, I can add to it later.
Well… we are here – in Tromso! I’ve borrowed a laptop, which has a Norwegian keyboard and as I don*t understand all of the keys , I’ll do my best to give an update and correct typos later.
The journey here was really long! From getting the 7am train to Birmingham, changing to connect to London and then again to Gatwick, took us to Mid day. Our 2pm flight to Oslo was delayed due to heavy snow ( there – not in the UK! ) so we missed the connecting flight to Tromso.
They put us on a later flight, getting us to Tromso at Midnight – where Jet was waiting patiently outside to pick us up.
Our bags weighed a ton, through carrying heavier clothes and as much artwork and materials as would fit into the cases.
The snow has hardened to ice here and as I look out of the window at the building opposite, I can see huge icicles hanging from the guttering.
The gallery occupies half of a large building – I think there is an office on the other side. It is a typical Norwegian style – wooden and painted blue and white.
One of the rooms, which was previously rented out as office space, has been turned into our bedroom. With a small heater, it is quite cosy.
Yesterday – our first full day here – we got to grips with the log burner. Important things first!
The log burner is in the kitchen area – just a few steps down from the main gallery space, but the temperature drops by quite a few degrees if you walk from one space to another.
It was really hard to work in such a cold space yesterday.
We’d unpacked our artwork and spread it out, making the decisions between the 3 of us where it should go.
Apart from a quick walk down to the harbour to see what was in the immediate vicinity, we spent the majority of the day huddled by the fire threading my wings onto fishing wire…and later on, deciding to paint the gallery walls. ( they probably didn’t really need it – but it was important to us to create a good impression)
To suspend my wings in the centre of the gallery space, jet had to place a ladder on a stack of tables to reach the high ceiling. An unbelievably dangerous stunt, but to which I am truly grateful, as it sets the work off well in the space.
This morning was sunny, so we braved the ice AND a bus! .. to visit the Arctic Cathedral… a journey that took us off the island via a lengthy bridge. The cathedral was closed, but guessing we were English ( too many clothes and the wellies were a give away) one of the staff opened the doors, and speaking in English, beckoned us inside so that we could take photos.
Amazing place!
Back to small projects this afternoon, to finish hanging all our work…and here we are, patiently waiting for visitors to arrive tonight for the PV.
Artist, among other things
