Category Archives for: Writing

November 7, 2017

Pamflett Exhibition

Filed under: Exhibitions, Publications, Writing

Photos of my exhibition “Å finne stemmen” at Pamflett that closed last Sunday in Bergen.

When I arrived at the beginning of the residency, the wall was full of nails and clips. Instead of taking them down, I took them in stride and used them as part of the exhibition. Constantly moving things around until my last day in the space, printed layer over layer over layer. What remained was the making of my book.

On the making of this publication

Trial, error
Bittersweet honesty
The limits of a space, the limits of a Risograph
Working with what one has instead of fighting against it
Leaving things to chance
Unexpectedly good outcomes
Sometimes

This paper has been through the machine five times
A misprint, text, text, logos, this poem

Make the form fit the content
Let the metaphors run free

Sensitive, prickly machines must be handled with care

The artist as a designer is perhaps too imaginative
The artist as a printer bemoans her imaginative choices
The artist as a writer is, well, me

There are many ways to tell a story
And it takes many voices

Anonymous
Upside down
Either, or

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August 1, 2017

It takes time

Filed under: Exhibitions, Writing

There’s an interview (på norsk) up now on the Deichman literature blog where I mostly talk about the (old) Internet and fermentation. One week left to catch my show in Grünerløkka!

Photo by Cathrine Strøm.

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May 22, 2017

Documentation, 2 new texts

Filed under: Exhibitions, Writing

Documentation from High Tide is now up. Thanks to Joe Webb for the pics!

I’ve also uploaded two new texts on Medium, both made while preparing for the exhibition. One specifically pairs with a project, while the other stands alone; one is floaty and amorphous, while the other clings to a structure. Both are titled with the day upon which they were written. #empathy # language #technology #purgatory ?

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May 30, 2016

Rejections

Filed under: Writing

Rejections are a fact of life. Lately I’ve been enduring more than what feels like a fair share. Despite this, giving up is not an option. Dear Internet, all I want is relative financial security and time to rest.

LA3

Since March I’ve only been writing applications på norsk, not sure yet if it is doing anything. Another round is fast approaching, however. A rather piquant summary of my interests from last fall, taken from a (rejected) application:

Urban plant life, worn digital devices, public forests and beaches littered with trash, and found objects clearly marked by the human hand are endlessly fascinating as subjects to me. I strive to make modern images that accurately represent living in our times without falling into either documentary or humanitarian photography. I am interested in the everyday and the mundane; what is seen a thousand times but rarely registered.

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January 13, 2016

Wild ambitions

Filed under: Writing

Since the end of 2014, I’ve (both intentionally and unintentionally) delved more and more into the Norwegian culture and way of life. This isn’t news to my cloest friends, but I have made the decision to live here permantely.

As such, I’ve decided to challenge myself to write a novel på norsk based on my family and growing up in the USA as a third generation immigrant. Major themes: language, soft racism and the search for a better life. Also some humor and early Internet bits, of course!

Jeg mener at innholdet skal være helt sant, men Rolf (partnernen min) ville at jeg skrive med frihet og fantasere litt. We’ll see! I’m getting quite good at writing and hopefully putting my own stories into words will lead to fluency. Fingers crossed.

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February 20, 2015

Tried to write a statement and ended up with a poem

Filed under: Writing

I find myself seduced by the sheer physicality of the world
Half the day spent behind screens of various shapes and sizes
Out in the world I am drawn to a particular situational aesthetic
Some sort of desolation, crisp focus, even light, etc
The best images are both familiar and alienating

Running barely moist palms over a smooth keyboard
The feeling of keys under fingertips typing click clack
Out the window are cars, buildings, trees
New and ancient technologies side by side
The oldest of which is nature itself

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December 18, 2014

Medium

Filed under: Writing

studio

I’ve opened up an account on Medium and put my MFA thesis online for anyone who is interested.

Physical copies are also available (for a limited time) through NSEW. Less than a dozen are left! Coincidentally, everything on NSEW is on sale through the end of December..

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January 6, 2014

On Fermentation

Filed under: Writing

It all started when we went epleslang in Majorstuen late one night last fall. Out of all of us, Håkon was the most brave and would casually walk into the rich people’s gardens to scout out ripe apple trees while the rest of us waited outside the gates, hiding in the shadows. After a few hours of wandering through both public and private areas, we had at least ten kilos of apples between us. They were green and pink, irregular and beautiful.

Then began the task of processing them. Over the next weeks I made apple cider, apple sauce, apple cookies and most importantly, apple cider vinegar. I’d never made it before then and the greatest thing about it is that you make it only using what is usually thrown out: i.e. the cores, stems, and skin. Somewhat of an acquired taste, the apple cider vinegar began to grow on me, especially after seeing it seemingly materialize out of nothing over a few months in a glass jar under my kitchen sink. I was hooked. In the following months I began to ferment everything in sight: red wine vinegar with fresh rosemary, ginger beer, cucumber soda, turmeric soda, larger batches of apple cider and countless flavors of kombucha, or fermented tea. When I started seeing my new partner, our first date consisted of preparing tea leaves for a two-month pickling and musing over kimchi.

When I returned to the Academy after a year off, I brought all my fermentation projects with me into the studio. And it seems that they have now taken over, with their steady yet unpredictable schedules and their slow sense of time. Sometimes when I sit here, it feels like nothing is happening. But on every eighth day or so when I bottle a new batch of kombucha, I am reminded that this is not true at all. The images, texts, and objects on my walls operate in a similar fashion. Silently they chide me on to continue writing my thesis, their faces unchanging. Yet every once in awhile, I will notice something new and begin to move them around. Adding and subtracting until things become more clear or more wild, depending on my mood that day.

In the center of the studio is a table, around which I share the fruits of my labor with friends and others who come to call. We talk about art there, but also about our personal lives, the school, things we saw that inspired us.  It was here I had a conversation with a friend where we kept coming back to the theme of voraciously reading yet forgetting specifics afterwards, no matter how good the book was. Yet there is power in forgetting, we decided—the power of internalized knowledge subconsciously sneaking (for better or for worse) into one’s world view.

“Art is a process because life is a process.”

Wasn’t it Wilde who said that?

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