My artistic research and artwork concern observing photographs, oral history, archival material etc.; traces from everyday life and material that together constitutes “the story about us”. My observations often set me off on journeys to investigate a particular story, person or place. While on these journeys I collect material through photographing, interviewing, filming, visiting archives and so on. My works are often displayed as installations consisting of a mixture of my own and found photographs, video, text and objects, arranged in fragmented narratives. I want to pursue the non-spectacular stories through my work, the stories that becomes part of statistics when history is written.
Current and ongoing research
The work We belong to the Same Tree started in 2005, when I found a photograph of my grandmother’s sister Sophia who emigrated to Canada in 1912. What started as a fascination for a woman that seemed very different from the rest of my family started a long period of travels to North America and the North of Norway. Through the investigation of my family history I’ve also investigated the story of Norwegian Emigration, to North America in particular.
Through the reconstruction of a family's history, I also mirror the history of Norway and the big changes this country has gone through the last century, from being a country that was so poor that people wanted to leave it, to what it is today, a country that people want to migrate to. Through my work I also want to question what we focus on in today’s discussions about emigration, 2nd and 3rd generations immigrants, and how migration effects our personal stories, identity and society.
The documentation is from the solo show We Belong to the Same Tree at Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter 2011. A text installation from this body of work was shown at the group show Blackout in Gallery Huuto, Helsinki 2011.
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