Treeline

Friday

Arriving late, first impressions; conversations into the early morning, exchanging ideals and theories, plotting courses to follow for the journey ahead. Oh, it’s cold, it’s expensive, but it’s so clean!

Journey? 1st time on an artist residence, so some trepidation, Subject matter that is close to the heart, but with other artists that share similar ideals. Although late, the atmosphere still sparkles with a taste of what has been, the Notam studio space(notam02.no)  studios crammed to the rafters with analogue music making and manipulating equipment, artists creating soundscapes in cooperative  spaces, collaborative networks starting to be established and more to be experienced.  To be able to discuss the change that an artist led project that can help the way that people see the change that we have to make to our environment.

Saturday

Exploration, Cultural differences.

Having experienced cultural differences and attitudes to the arts in both Europe and North America, being given the opportunity to explore in such a diverse city poses the question, where does one start? A course plotted the previous evening saw Daniel Hopkins, Becky Mayhay and myself at the Atilier Nord ANX gallery on Olaf Ryes Plass to experience “Infinite Monologue” by Tor Jorgan van Eijk

An installation of pulsating colour, rolling scan lines, noise and sound, the installation utlising  video feedback loops to create its own points of reference, small adjustments externally creating an infinite amount of possibilities to the sound and the visual effect.

What strikes the viewer first is that Atilier Nord is an old church, and on entering the piece, it gives the impression of coming to worship, screens either side of the viewer, a tryptic of screens placed at the end and the sound all-encompassing as a church organs drone, acoustically, the sound being hypnotic, like a chant or a mantra.

From here our course veers to the Podium Oslo on Hausmanngate (www.podium.enterprises) to see the exhibition of “Wall One” Ayman Alazraq and Emanual Svedin

The piece reflects on the constriction of thousands of refugees being constricted in one place, a murmur of a heartbeats emanating from behind the wall. The wall of rough construction, but plastered white, its edges rough, hurried, almost as if to hide what is within, the thin clean veneer hiding what our society doesn’t want to acknowledge.  The heartbeats are but a murmur, but on placing ones hands on the wall, they become real, the thub thub resonating with us, amplifying the plight of refugees in these environments.

What struck me walking back along the river was the smell of the paint can, the signature haze of the graffiti artist. More so was the diverse nature of the graffiti that was being encountered. Political statements, anti-facist, anarchistic, works portraying the plight of the refugees that the wall had referenced. Graffiti chased around buildings, along floors over doorways, similar to the west area of Amsterdam, every fire-hydrant, street sign and brick being included is the street artist’s palette.

Coming from an inner-city area that is well known for its graffiti, and street art, Digbeth, in Birmingham, the differences between the work in the Uk and Europe as a whole were striking. European graffiti it seems is a lot more political, the messages rammed home in multicolour acrylic and cellulose. But large graffiti arts pieces largely untouched by the taggers paint pens, a mutual respect between art and anarchy. Almost as if it was an agreement that the pieces that carried the social political messages needed to be seen and that the taggers were signing their agreement to this.

One thing that’s strikes me about Oslo is just how quiet it is. In most major European cities, there are always the sounds of a city, cars, laughter, sirens, the hustle and bustle. Oslo is different. Noise is a pollutant. Be it actual or electromagnetic smog, it is always there in a metropolis. Here, not so, the peace is almost deafening. The stress that this noise causes is a factor in underlying stress induced problems, does this mean that by removing this noise, we can start to make more spaces that are conducive to an arena of positive solutions’ to nature looking problems?

Sunday

Day of Rest?

One gets to know what makes a city’s heart beat by wandering the streets, exploring places that some would fear to tread. Sunday, when traditionally everybody rests isn’t the best day for this. However, the artist community in the Grunerlykken  is still fairly vibrant even then. Artist markets abound, natural crafts, a part of the countryside in the big city.

Walking up to the Kulture Huset to see Dele Sesimi,  the musician responsible for keeping the music of the afrobeats movement alive, gave plenty of time for contemplation and approaching the subject of how we change society to think locally and in the wider world about our relationships with nature and how we can help her. Messages come from everywhere, street art prompting self- reasoning, birds battling over food ; small birds faster than the larger ones, deft of foot, individual rather than pack mentality. Frightened away, their dance forgotten by the shadow and call of the seagull, lands amongst them all and scatters them to the winds. Like small ideas, quick efficient, which get left behind in the larger flocks and then get squashed by big corporations?

Dele Sesimi’s talk of the history of Afrobeats brought back many memories. Been brought up in Handsworth, I can remember the sound system playoffs between the reggae and the beats across street corners, us as children having our ears massaged by historical African beats and the cloth stringed bass lines of Marley. It’s as children that Dele made reference to us, as in music, one can give us a toy, there are three types of children who will receive it. One will take it, examine and cherish, put it away, unplayed and stored, away from the world. One will play, take it apart, see how it works but abandon it through boredom or lack of reconstruction skills. The other will do this, but learn the skills that are required to make it whole, examine the mechanisms, re-build it to be as good if not better than the original. Dele took the music that would have died and made it more, kept it alive. Given the gift and the opportunity, he seized it and made it more. To return it back better than before.

How many times in our lives can we apply this analogy to ourselves, our practice and the environment that we live in. to Receive, study, learn, question resolve and make better?

Meeting Karen O’Brien provided some of the answers, Karen is a Professor in the department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo

To enable the change in attitudes needed to make biophilic relationships work, we felt that the approach should be multi-faceted, raising awareness from different viewpoints, either from a sub-culture change or an obvious, on the surface one. From little acorns grow big trees but one tree doesn’t make a forest. Plant more Acorns. Grow more trees.

Too many times, issues with the environment are sensationalised, once the initial message is out there, it ebbs away. The facts may be exaggerated in a wave of sensationalism; by relying on true properly researched facts and using them as part of a properly planned framework of education, better results could be achieved.

Monday

Meetings and Mountains.

Early morning meeting with Gyrid of PNEK, Production network for Electronic art in Norway, an organisation that connects with over 50 international partners and partner networks.

As an artist whose work encompasses this media, it’s important to see how potential partners react to the ideas that we bring with us, and how we can all work together on our common goal. Refreshingly, the network is already switched on to the ideas of Biophillic cities, and the role that artists and academics have to play,

After being here for three days now, it intrigues me how I’m dissecting ideas brought with me. The smallest thing, such as a hoarding cut out to let a plant grow, bringing home how this city cares about nature and its impact on it. The city also gives an inspirational backdrop to the swopping of ideas about art in general, its approach to diversity, and subjects such as mental health and addiction. Ideas and opinions that may have stayed hidden come out in the environment that the residency has provided. Although walking around the city may provide inspiration, the swapping of ideals and opinions provide the perspiration behind the finished product.

Tuesday

Ice and Imagination

Snow! As quiet as Oslo is, the cloak of snow over the city silences it even further, but glad to hear the bustle and chatter at Kunsternernos Hus, where we met Madaline Park, curator and manager of the RAM gallery. It was interesting to hear of the same struggles that artists have here in Norway, moving into spaces abandoned by industry and business, making them work as arts spaces, only to have industry and business take them back over again once the artists have breathed life back into them. At least here, arts industry and business work together to create a harmony between their own needs, unlike Germany and the UK, where gentrification are the order of the day and the artists, their job done are pushed out to start the cycle all over again.

Onwards to exploring, with Coral Manton, new media artist and researcher  down to the fiord through and industrial powerhouse of regeneration. Stark towers take the fumes away from the cars that escape to Sweden, urban gardens reside amongst the concrete, houses built like boats, with earth built pizza ovens. A paradise in a dystopian landscape.

It’s rare in our busy lives to get the chance to let the brain go, walking 5 miles round Oslo may have made for sore feet, but the wealth of knowledge, understanding and ideas that were exchanged were invaluable, and a good starting point for future projects. It also detracts that we are walking 5 miles….

Oslo, even in winter is a beautiful city, sunset over the fiord reminded me of what we could lose if we don’t look after what we have. Inspired by my surroundings, the Astrup Fearnley Museum topped the day providing insight and thought provoking works by artists such as Koons, Kiefer Sherman and Hirst. Protected and displayed for future generations. Bit like what we should be considering for our planet really.

The opportunity to think about the world we live in was interesting in visiting Oslo in Norway for 4 days. As part of the treeline project initiated and set up by Jaime Jackson this was an interesting opportunity to make new connections and learn about the work of other artists and spaces in another country. The project brief is one on the environment and the global effects we as humans are having on it. My work and ideas as an artist are increasingly being drawn to the way we as humans create and live in the world.  Also my work has been moved to how man’s battle with the environment exists and drawing attention to where interesting conflicts lie. To hopefully engage conversation and dialogue about the world we live in.

Going to Oslo was interesting to see on a number of levels. From looking at the city from an ecological point of view to meeting artists and galleries to discuss how they create work.

This trip was also a group exercise as it had been initiated by Jaime within the arts development collective called Black Hole Club that is co-ordinated by Vivid Projects in Birmingham. Along with fellow artist Rebecca Mahay and I arrived first with many other artists from the collective arriving over the next week. Jaime has set up various meeting with galleries, artists and academics over the week so that we could enter into dialogues and make connections with people. For me this was also a chance to explore and reflect on Oslo the place. The trip helped me evaluate and strengthen some of my practice.

After arriving in Oslo on a Thursday evening after taken a train from my home in Nuneaton to Stansted Airport UK. Rebecca and I headed to Notam http://www.notam02.no/web/informasjon/?lang=en  for our first meeting. Notam was a space for artists and musicians who were interested in all the areas of sound and music and the arts and lots in between. We first met Gyrid Nordal Kaldestad Who was the director of PNEK (Production Network for Electronic Art, Norway) http://www.pnek.org/ who was in the process of finishing a sound work in the Notam space. Gyrid was creating a piece that was interactive with the space that it was being installed in.  What was interesting was that Gyrid had came to Notam to work and collaborate with others to help realise the piece. Using staff at the space helped create the work. It was interesting to see the space in use by lots of different artists and in-house staff helping artists create work.  We were looked after well by the director Christian Blom. Who showed us around the facilities and introduced us to the staff and artists working there. They had a really inspiring 360 sound studio with a Hungarian artist working on a sound work. Rebecca and I were able to hear how this work was going and how it was developing.

We also met with Elvic Kongolo and Cato Langnes who were in the process of working on Elvic’s music and interesting mix of Congolese Funk.
This was a space we could come and play with and create new work in. This was inspiring and useful for the future creation of work and experimentation.

Christian the director was also helpful in giving us a variety of new contacts that we can follow up on. Most of these connections were on the subject matter that we were in Norway for, and it will be exciting to see what artists we can engage with to develop the project.
Pictures from Notam

Next event was an art opening a new exhibition by Vanessa Baird a leading artist in fact one the most known in Norway. Having been a recipient of the Lorck Schive Art Prize in 2015 the top prize for Norwegian artists She was presenting work at Kunstneres Hus which is one if not the biggest contemporary arts space in Oslo.

To describe the work I would mention artists like Grayson Perry and a bit of William Morris!? from my UK perspective. The work could be seen as obscene and controversial. I found it invigorating, free and charming in its form and content. This event was a good opportunity to see the how the Oslo art scene works and also gave me a good idea on how to compare it to the UK.

Images from the show.

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Following day was a chance to explore several more galleries and also a chance for myself to explore some ideas I have had about making some work while there.

The sun was bright on Saturday Morning and during the previous day I had found the river the flows down through Oslo fascinating partly as a tourist and partly as an artist. I decided that I wanted to capture this and on this Saturday morning with some good sunlight I managed to. Using my LumoKino Film Camera, Mobile Phone and Sound Recorder I believe I had some interesting visual sketches to make something from. During this visit I had become interested in the river and its many different bridges. I have yet to research the river more but this visit has sowed some seeds of interest relating the use and development of this river.

Images from my exploration and forthcoming film.

After a morning of exploration and shooting I met up with Rebecca and now David Checkley who joined us the previous evening. We headed to Atelier Nord. https://ateliernord.no/en/tor-jorgen-van-eijk-infinite-monologue/  A gallery on the main square in the Grünerløkka area we were staying in.  This gallery was a showing a piece by Tor Jørgen van Eijk it was loud and visually arresting using video feedback and an array of monitors and speakers. The work was really skillfully executed and a good use of the space it was in. Which had a history of being a church and created a cathedral like expression of the sound. I spoke to the invigilator of the space and exchanged contact details and we discussed the work on show and also what they have done previously. Including exhibitions on the end of the AM radio signal. This topic had been covered also by the Black Hole Club and the exhibition called Transmission earlier in the year. What was also interesting was a catalogue for a previous show that had taken place called ‘frontiers of solitude’ I was given this as it directly correlated to what we were doing in Oslo as this was an interesting body of work created around ecology and the environment. I have been inspired by this work and intend to read and research more into it.

In the afternoon we visited Podium Oslo http://podium.enterprises/  a space on Hausmannsgate. The current show was called ‘Wall One’ by Ayman Alazraq and Emanuel Svedin though I hadn’t taken the title in until I visited the space. In fact we first walked past it and rejected it as possibly being somewhere else. Once discovered this piece was a revelation in its simplicity and construction, but very deep and meaningful in it’s context. It made me think about how you can use sound to convey emotions more than alot of their work. The simplicity and use of the sense of touch was captivating and inspiring.

After this visit we were joined by more artists in Jaime Jackson and Sally Payen. This led to further discuss and development of the project. This continued the following morning where Kate Spence arrived. Around the dining table of the house we were all staying in was an interesting conversation about the art we were seeing and embarking on as well project at hand. This time spent focusing on wide subject was fascinating to do and helped work out for me what the project could be or develop into.

In conclusion the opportunity to do this has been immensely satisfying I have got to spend time with various artists on the project we are developing.  Be inspired by an interesting place and meet some new people who will hopefully be involved in the creation of some new work.

Written by Daniel Hopkins.
Contact [email protected]
www.landcrash.co.uk

Björk has always been ahead of her time and it was no different when she named her album ‘Biophilia’ – the love of nature – leaving me trailing behind flying my biophilic flag six years later as I join the Treeline project to head to Oslo.

A couple of things infiltrated my mind as I prepared to leave for the trip. So many people live in cities, it makes sense to integrate nature if we’re to attempt a move towards sustainable lifestyles. So, what everyday things am I doing that could easily be changed to have a positive outcome for the environment? Small actions done everyday by every person can have a marked impact globally.

I also have to admit to nervousness about the heightened global awareness of the prevalence of sexual harassment. Would I see traces of that, or evidence of toxic masculinity, in the art world in Oslo? How would I deal with it if I came across it? (Answer is: write a blog post.)

Immediately, I am thrown into another ethical dilemma. Does the damage my cheap flight is costing the earth outweigh the outcome of visiting Oslo? I mention it to Daniel Hopkins who I am flying over with. He, like myself, is a member of Black Hole Club at Vivid Projects. We don’t really come to a conclusion.

As we get the train from Oslo airport to the city I’m suddenly reminded of my former Scandinavian lifestyle having once lived in Sweden for a year. We’ve unintentionally become the loud tourists on the train – it is remarkably quiet and extremely clean. The video monitors display the news and advertise a film festival going on while we’re there. Everything seems so relaxed, quiet, and cultured. Dan’s suitcase flies across the carriage from the luggage racks as it’s on wheels and the train is travelling a bit smooth for it’s liking. The carriage gasps and a man runs up after Dan to make sure his own case won’t take on a life of it’s own.

Later, as I picked the incorrect suggested address on Google Maps, we end up towards the top of the city and have to walk back down in the moonlight passing some allotments along the way to find our townhouse. Growing things in a capital city.

We meet Christian the next day, the newly appointed director of Notam, the Norwegian center for technology in the arts and music. For me, the main take away of the meeting – in addition to partnering with Notam on our project – is something Christian says as a side note. In the summer everyone climbs through the windows to swim in the river running alongside the building. As a child, Christian said the river was not clean enough to swim in. Change is possible in our lifetime.

Gyrid from pnek arts is at Notam working on a sound installation. Another interesting side note, she mentions some work done by a colleague where they found that underground mining was so loud that is was killing fish. What else will I learn on this visit?

Well, there is a phrase that I know Jaime Jackson has already mentioned. It is something Professor of Geography Karen O’Brian mentioned to us and means ‘fire soul’, ildsjel. This term is used to describe people who are driving forces to action, for example MPs rallying in Parliament, or people who enthusiastically do everything they can in the community. We need more fire souls to get action taken about the climate change and the environment especially within the city space. Karen also talks about the need to help people ‘activate’ their power as individuals to influence government on climate change and restricting damage to the planet.

Why use heaters when you can wrap yourself in a sheepskin? Every little helps.

Now moving on to discuss patriarchy. During my visit to Oslo I had one meeting where I felt my contribution to the conversation was not being heard. Another person repeated pretty much what I had already said and then it was responded to. This happened a couple of times during that meeting. What does a woman need to do to get heard? I left that meeting not pleased at all with the outcome. The majority of the meeting was had by men. I deal with this fairly regularly but I had let my guard down and forgotten to actively address the situation. In this case I would have simply asked if there was anything wrong with the way I was expressing myself as I wasn’t sure it was getting through.

On a related note, on another occasion we attended a music event whereby the host had told the audience to ‘do what they needed to do’ during a break where an important piece of music was played. I was then told to be quiet by the host, that people might be annoyed by the distraction. He leaned into me when he said this and was gesticulating with his hands. I noticed other people seemed to be talking but was too embarrassed/undermined to say anything. Later, they sent me a private message to say I wasn’t even being disruptive but that they wanted to curb any disruption before it happened. This was totally outside of the theme for the event, of political revolution and challenging the status quo.

Later, I thought a lot about how women are often silenced or intimidated. A small action can have such a deterring impact, especially when it happens often. I was feeling it on this trip, having to call out racism in one conversation when someone said that we’re all made up of colour and no one is any less the target of racism. This was said by a white male. (I pointed out their privilege and that power structures function in different ways.) Intersectionality is incredibly important for me as a British-Indian female and this is something I take with me wherever I go whether I want to or not and Oslo is no exception. We need to persistently call out these issues if we’re to really bring about change. That goes for the environment, too. Abuse of power comes as no surprise. #notsurprised

There is so much more I could write but I should start drawing to a close. I would like to mention one last thing. The lady working in the vintage interiors store nearby the townhouse was interesting to talk to. She used to work as an art consultant on cruise ships, then as a set designer in film/TV. Here she is in her store Inventarium:

This made me think about the economy of furniture. The beautiful art pieces in the store are old and have had previous owners yet the value maintains on these items and they have avoided being thrown away or discarded. That economy is helping the environment. (It helps that older items seemed to have been built to last.) The trip to Oslo was really making me think, even the vintage store suddenly had environmental significance.

All in all I had a really engaging and productive visit to Oslo. As an audio-visual artist I witnessed two brilliant pieces that inspired me to push the content of my work further. I will soon be preparing my artist response to this project for a February show at Vivid Projects.

I have much food for thought including this suggestion below for further reading for anyone interested. This is reconnected me to my background in philosophy and aesthetics so I now have more strings to my bow in continuing to work on this project and in this newly formed network with Oslo.