Småprat
2022

Photographs, printed matter, objects purchased through the e-commerce platform Finn, transcribed interviews, bilingual website, installation variable

ROM for kunst og arkitektur (Oslo) 2022, Østfold Kunstsenter (Fredrikstad) 2024

When I moved to Jeløya in the summer of 2020, it seemed like an impossible task to get to know anyone in my new neighbourhood: an eclectic mix of sprawling single-family villas, shared dwellings, townhouses, and apartment blocks. I had a newborn and the pandemic was in full effect. So naturally, I set up on an alert on Finn^*.

Soon I was following everything that was sold or given away within a 1000m radius of my new home. I have now met my neighbours in parks, backyards, living rooms, and studios. An interconnected web of non-traditional commerce, made possible through an app that is now vocally betting against personal connections and “småprat” (small talk).

^*A Norwegian online marketplace for buying and selling of everything from used children's clothes to furniture, animals, cars, and property.

The project exists as both a physical installation and a website that holds interviews (in the original Norwegian and translated) and portraits of the neighbors who I met through this project.

This piece was originally commissioned for the exhibition Betraktninger = Observations, Dialogues and Actions, curated by Trygve Ohren: a multifaceted collaboration between Oslo Architecture Triennale, Master in art and public space (MAPS) at Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) and ROM for kunst og arkitektur.

In 2024, the work was exhibited again at Østfold Kunstsenter (Fredrikstad) as part of their annual summer group exhibition.

In connection with this edition of the work, cuttings from the original plants I bought as part of the project were given away. Both in person and through an ad on Finn, of course.