Yay - It's my birthday! And today KMD (The Faculty of Fine Art, music and design at the University of Bergen) will publish my quirky artist presentation / lecture, where I try to line up a fraction of the map with the rugged terrain of my artistic practice.
In case I mispronounce essential words - here's the script, more or less.
In his review in Danish art magazine Magasinet Kunst, Frederik Westergaard focuses on the references to Wabi-sabi zen-buddhism in my latest exhibition APCLPSTK - Therapeutic Utopias [Stage 2, scene 6, take 14 - 'Trust Yourself to the Water'] at Visningsrommet USF. Article in Danish only.
I'm finishing up the documentation for my installation 'Triangled lens' from a series of installations under the parental project entitled "Concerning acts of hatred and destruction," succeeding in concept, not in linear time "Concerning acts of fear and protection" and preceeding the runner-up "Concerning acts of love and devotion."
Ellen Ringstad is among this year's awarded artists and receives a culture grant of NOK 40.000.
The Municipality of Bergen awards NOK 2.350.000 to 70 artists and culture workers in 2016. 'The amount of applicants increases each year, as does the quality of the applications, says Øyvor Johnson, head of the Department of Culture at the Bergen City Counsil to Bergensavisen BA (article in Norwegian, available from URL https://www.ba.no/pulsen/kultur/bergen-kommune/tre-millioner-til-bergenskunstnere/s/5-8-424908)
"There would be no Bergen Assembly without the [local] art scene" says artist Toril Johannesen and curators Arne Skaug Olsen and Anne Szefer Karlsen to Morgenbladet Kunstkritikk, inviting some locals for a photoshoot.
Front row (from the left): Anne Szefer Karlsen, Toril Johannessen, Arne Skaug Olsen, Åse Løvgren. Second row: Heidi Nikolaisen, Tatiana Lozano, Vilde Salhus Røed, Petra Rahm, Stacy Brafield. Middle area: Steinar Sekkingstad, Sissel Blystad, Hilde Jørgensen, Randi Grov Berger, Kristin Tårnesvik, Pedro Gómez-Egaña, Maia Urstad, David A. Rios, Andrea Spreafico, Malin Barth, Anne Marthe Dyvi, Aslak Høyersten, Maya Økland, Annette Kierulf, Daniel Persson. Back row: Lisa Schorm, Ellen Ringstad, Sveinung Rudjord Unneland, Marie Nerland, Rasmus Hungnes, Heiko Preundt, Espen Sommer Eide, Kjetil Kausland, Martin Clark, Maria Rusinovskaya, Lars Ove Toft, Lasse Årikstad, Asbjørn Hollerud, Amber Ablett. Foto: Oddleiv Apneseth.
My solo exhibition this fall had to be cancelled. I am currently dismantling and reassembling its many intended elements, letting them resurface in new contexts eventually (and in much smaller constituents than originally planned). Here's one of the performative elements out of original context, referencing Isaiah 38:10 (a line which was re-interpreted at the very beginning of Dante's Inferno). In modern English it reads something like this: "I say: In the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of hell." (1)
Sources:
(1) Matthew Pearl. 2006. The Dante Club. Ballantine Books (Reprint Edition, June 27, 2006).
I've just shipped four paintings from the 'Lunar Cycles'-series and the first edition of 'Nine Circles' (a set of nine casted wax candles - from a total edition of 74) to the group exhibition Inferno, curated by Raul Zamudio at the Pristine Galerie in Monterrey, Mexico in August 2016. The candles will burn down throughout the exhibition.
Documentation of my paintings from the ongoing Lunar Cycles-series is now available here.
One night only-group show, curated by Rasmus Hungnes and Josefine Lyche on March 1rst, 2016. Participating artists were "selected according to the twelve signs of the Zodiac by using divination techniques and different modes of Gnosis", on the occasion of the release of the contemporary art magazine KUNSTforum's latest issue 01/16 on 'Art and Spirituality.' I participated with two context-specific works. Photos fro the show can be seen here: http://www.ellenringstad.com/#!exhibition---kunstforum-12016-launch-at/c2e