HUMAN ANGELS and DIVINITIES
2003, 2010
HUMAN ANGELS
Through the project Human Angels I wanted to explore spiritual and elevated qualities in humans. I was also interested in whether or not one could attribute human qualities to heavenly beings.
The project consisted of a series of analogue photographs taken over a period of two years. The models are the central motif, and were carefully selected according to who could portray a human angel. All the pictures are taken in the same place. I built a small, narrow room in my studio. It had three walls and a floor, but no ceiling. This made it possible to place flashes in such a way that the light in the room was completely even and without shade, regardless of where in the room one stood. The room was painted in a neutral colour. The models are photographed without accessories or costumes of any kind.
Human Angels was presented as a performance during the Oslo Open 2003. Together with 70 nursery school children, I walked from Oslo Central Station up Karl Johansgate, past the town hall, and down to the Museum for Contemporary Art. On the way we handed out envelopes marked “Valuable contents: may contain a work of art!”. All envelopes contained a card with pictures of the works and an explanatory text. 1000 of the envelopes also contained an original signed photograph.
A couple of days before the performance, I gathered all the children for a wing workshop. Each child was given a set of wings, which they decorated themselves. On the day, we all dressed up as angels, with wings and balloons. On arriving at the Museum for Contemporary Art, the children were served cordial and buns, and later shown around the museum.
The purpose of the project was twofold. I wanted to see what would happen when art is taken out of its traditional exhibition space and made accessible for people where they are. I also wanted to give the children a different and more participatory introduction to visual art.
NRK Østlandsendingen, a current affairs programme on public service television, broadcast a report of the event on the same day. The project was supported by Studio Technika, and was produced in co-operation with Oslo Music and Cultural School and the Museum for Contemporary Art. Photographs from Human Angels were also shown at “Norske Bilder” (Rådhusgalleriet/Galleri Brandstrup 2003) and Østlandsutstillingen (Annual Exhibition of Eastern Norway) in 2003 and 2004.
Pictures from HUMAN ANGELS performance
“Human things must be known to be loved,
but divine things must be loved to be known”
DIVINITES
Divinities was shown as a solo exhibition at Gulden Kunstverk. The project consisted of paintings and photo collages.
With this project I wanted to further explore our relationship to religion. I portrayed both general expressions of angels and my personal relationship to the spiritual. I believe that as our understanding of the universe grows, we are about to discover an equally large universe within ourselves. I believe that increased awareness of the inner life of our souls and the spiritual forces that surround us will give us a better understanding of life.
Most of the paintings for this project started as self portraits, in which I put myself in various roles based on female archetypes, angels and goddesses. The female forms in these pictures all have wings. The wings are manipulated from stuffed birds that I photographed at the Geological Museum in Copenhagen. It is important to me that the wings are from living beings, and have actually been used to fly at some time.
Central to the exhibition was a series of photo collages: William’s Angels. For these works I started with photographs of paintings by William Adolphe Bouguereau (1825 – 1905). Bouguereau was considered very modern and was popular in his time. I was inspired by Bouguereau’s view of the spiritual, placed his realistic and classical paintings together with my own, and developed a new and independent expression.
