PERFECT POSES
2009
Perfect poses was exhibited at the rural branch of Galleri Maria Veie in December 2009. The project consisted of paintings, photographs, a video work and a performance.
It is common for young girls to dream of becoming a ballet dancer. I believe that the profession lacks the recognition and status it deserves, and I wanted to highlight this dream as worthy. The project was also personal. As a child, I dreamt of becoming a dancer. I got out the points I used when I was eleven, and took a series of self portraits with them on. In the finished paintings I appear as the grown-up dancer I never was, while they also contain those feelings I have today.
I have used a lot of ink in the paintings, which contributes to a transparent and translucent expression. The colour scale is restrained, and largely limited to pastels and light tones.
Video work
For the video that is a part of this project, I interviewed the youngest dancers at the Kirkenær ballet school in Oslo. I also filmed them during practice, and made a work which portrays their relationship to ballet.
My works are about the body and bodily awareness. For this project I was particularly concerned about the bodily aspects of dance. Dancers use their bodies to tell a story or communicate an idea. The body and its moves are the art itself. I was curious as to how important this aspect is for the very youngest of the dancers – to what extent they perceive themselves as a subject or object. I also wondered about how concerned they were about the princess myths that are related to classical ballet. Is the dream of becoming a ballerina actually just as much a dream of becoming someone’s princess?
Presentation
The exhibition was held at Veie Østre in Skogn in Trøndelag, the rural branch of Galleri Maria Veie. The venue is an old farmhouse from the 19th Century, without electricity. The opening was held just before sundown, and the audience were welcomed at dusk with burning torches and music that flowed across the farmyard.
Inside, they were met by a group of young ballet dancers from Inderøy cultural school. The rooms were sparsely lit. The dancers were therefore equipped with a pocket torch each, and were given the role of being mobile light sources. Members of the audience would have to ask one of the girls to shine her torch in order to see the paintings with sufficient light. Through a live performance with local dancers and the video of Kirkenær ballet school, a meeting between town and country was created, as well as a meeting between youth and adulthood, and between childhood dream and adult life. The children who were physically present created a link between the dancers projected in the video work and the paintings.
Paintings from PERFECT POSES
