Strand has been interested in the book as a form, as a time-based medium, and as a sensory and metaphorical object. The books are made in letterpress on a thin, translucent and porous paper that lets a lot of light through. The sheets merge so that both time, space, shape and color are put into play and take on a fleeting and changeable character.
The PRISME series is inspired by the phenomenon of light refraction, and how different color mixtures behave in a given material. An equilateral prism is the starting point for the geometric figures that are repeated in the sheets’ different colored surfaces. The word prism is from the Greek, and means “sawn into pieces”. With the book form, colors and surfaces are put together again.
Orbit is the astronomical term for our circuit in the solar system. Orbita is the medical term for the eyeball. The eye has a lens, similar to the optics we use to see far into the universe. In art, the term iris is used for a graded color progression, in medical terms it is the name of the iris in the eye.
Strand has been fascinated by the fact that the components of the eye share terms with astronomy and science, and share form with the globe we live on, with the sun and the planets. She has used the circle as a motif to investigate what these connections can give in terms of associations, what they can imply about physical laws and our life conditions.
Randi Annie Strand (born 1962), graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bergen, lives and works in Oslo. She has had many solo exhibitions and participated in a number of group and collective exhibitions. Has received awards and has been purchased by, among others Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, KODE Art Museum, NordTrøndelag Art Museum, Stanford and Yale University Libraries and others.
