Kristin Tårnesvik

What happens here and now, both in the work and in the long run, is important to Tårnesvik. She works on a work until she considers it ready to be displayed, but she is still not concerned with the works ending up as static works of art with a given place in history. Afterwards, she can unsentimentally process them further or reuse them as materials in new projects. In the exhibition, both the works and the artist thus get a momentary break. The processing can range from adding new lines to scrubbing the drawings in the shower and then adding new layers of drawing, paint or other materials. The materials can take on a new function when the works undergo such a transformation. This is a dynamic way of working that the artist knows from growing up where repair and sober reuse have been an important value.

Tårnesvik calls his abstract works languageless. It is about abandoning language and entering a world of emotions. This is also linked to Tårnesvik’s upbringing in a Sea Sami village where Norwegianization has been strong. Traditional craftsmanship and the intuitive meet in the wooden sculptures made at her father’s home in Dálvesvággi/Olderdalen. In the exhibition, these also open up a spirituality and a sphere where time and place cease.

Kristin Tårnesvik (b. 1964) is a Norwegian-Sami artist from Gáivuotna/Kåfjord, living in Oslo. She graduated from the department of photography at the Bergen Academy of the Arts in 2004. She works in many different media and formats; from drawing, graphics, sculpture, photography, video to installation-based works. The background for the works is often themes such as cultural heritage and cultural memory, as well as reflection on time and manual work. Tårnesvik has participated in a number of exhibitions at home and abroad, including at the Sami Center for Contemporary Art, Stavanger Art Museum, Tromsø Art Association, RAM, the Stenersen Museum, Nikolay Kunsthall Denmark, Akershus Kunstnersenter, Performa New York, Entrée and Fotogalleriet. She has carried out several decoration commissions and her works have been purchased by, among others, the Norwegian Culture Council and the Sami Parliament.