Kirsti Grotmols series "Slowly Arrives" has recently been exhibited in Gallery Boa in Oslo and at The Danish Institute at Athens.
"SLOWLY
ARRIVES" a series of strong, colourful,
figurative paintings and a video based on the theme of childhood. Beneath a
seemingly calm surface, something disquieting is hinting at us.
The title
of the exhibition "Slowly Arrives"
refers to the creative process of painting, a process requiring in addition to
technical skill, both time and meditation.
Layers are
put on layers till the background and details are just reminiscent and hardly
visible. We are thus left with the mental space occupied by these children.
The
meditative aspect of creating art is in contrast to the ever
increasing tempo of our everyday life with its flow of news and casual
information.
The title
also refers to the process of remembering – to recollect the feeling of
childhood.
Therefore
the only painting of a grown up person – a woman – is also titled
"Slowly Arrives" .
The figures
in the paintings are alone, the children are looking into the world with the
gaze of a grown up trying to grasp the feeling and secrets of childhood.
Requisites like a doll, a bucket, an animal cannot cover the existential
solitude.
Something
happened to these children. But we do not know what. This is left open for
everyone to consider. In the painting "Afterwards Quiet" we see a
girl standing alone at the edge of a black shadow or whole in the ground. But
the painting does not tell anything about what went on before. The girl is
standing there alone looking both into herself and out at us - but the story that preceded this
moment we can only guess.
In the
painting "Guarding the clouds" we see more of the wonder of childhood
– that we all carry with us. This is also the
only painting where two children are together.
In the
painting "She who sings to the moon" we also see a child looking both
out into the night and into herself – the child that we all carry inside
of us.
So these
children – they are also grown ups. They are children who have seen too
much. And they are grown ups trying to reach back to the childhood who made
them what they are today.
There is
also a short video - less than 2
minutes long. It is based on the same theme – and is another way of
trying to catch the mystery of childhood – and of time.
ABOUT
THE ARTIST:
Kirsti Grotmol is educated at The National College of Art, Craft
and Design in
Oslo and The Art Academy in Lisboa Portugal. She also has education in journalism and
film. She makes art videos and documentary films. She also has a master degree
in making masks as a three dimensional art object. She has been editor of some cultural magazines as well as a
critic of theatre and literature. She now works beside her art as a critic of
illustrated books and a writer of articles on art related subjects.
She has
exhibited in many countries – Greece, Germany, France, Russia, Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania, China, Australia to mention some. She has travelled as a
guest artists to study masks and theatre as well as printing techniques in
Japan, she has been invited to workshops and guest studios in France, Denmark, Finland,
Italy etc. In 2005 she received a grant from the Onassis Foundation to come to
Greece for 6 months.
She has
also been leader/ president of The
Organisation of Visual Artists in Norway as well as President of the
Association of Norwegian Sculptors.
Artists
Union Memberships:
The Association
of Norwegian
Visual Artists (NBK)
The
Association of Norwegian Sculptors (NBF)
The Drawing
Art Association of Norway (TF)
The Artist
Union of Oslo (OBK)
The Artists«
Association
The
Association of Swedish Visual Artists
Director«s Guild of Norway (Norwegian Film Directors)
The
Norwegian Association of Litterature Critics
The
Norwegian Association of Theatre Critics
International
Organisation of Theatre Critics (IATC)
Work and
live in the Artists«colony Ekely
in Oslo