The five days I spent at Nordisk Kunst Plattform were a kind of mini-residency. Liz and Kjetil are committed to working with the artists they show. Living with them for nearly a week meant that I had time to work out how best to install the work, it also meant we had time to talk about art, living abroad (Kjetil lived in London for many years and now Liz lives in Norway), and making a living.
Day 1
At a little after nine in the morning Kjetil came downstairs to the gallery where I was starting to unpack. Jaer Bladet’s arts correspondent wanted a phone interview for the region’s daily newspaper. Liz and Kjetil have worked hard to promote the space and the artists they show, they are recognised as bringing something new and exciting to an area which is best known for it’s significance to the history of Norwegian landscape painting. (The landscape and the light are stunning and I often found myself just staring out over the platforms across the fields towards to the distant but perfectly clear mountain range.)
The Brusand Palette: NKPlattform is known for it’s wallpaper! The interior retains the wallpaper that was put up when it was station and much of the paintwork dates from the same time. Unfortunately some wallpaper was badly damaged by careless telecom workers. In another room a new wall had been hastily thrown up to separate the control room the railway still uses. These areas needed repainting and I was invited to choose the colour. We opted for a colour that already existed, taking our cue from the ceiling in the smaller room. Armed with the fuse unit from the strip-light we headed off to the renowned colour mixer at the hardware stores in the next town (the smear of ceiling paint on the fuse unit was enough for him to create an exact match). And so developed what we came to refer to as the Brusand Palette.
Late afternoon the newspaper calls to say they are sending a photographer at 8.30 the next morning – they want a picture of me with the work.
(Apologies for editing and re-posting this entry – I got things out of synch in the previous one and wanted to get things on the right days! Sorry)
