theoutdoorstudio

The outdoor studio at KMD

Bergen 2023-2025

METHOD & PRACTICE

I was unclear what to expect when entering the site I was given in January 2024. The Outdoor Studio began as a response to the limitations of the indoor studio. It first appeared as something outside its comfort zone, a place initially defined by an imagined desire. For most of the year, the site has stood unnoticed, indifferent, occasionally activated by a group course, occasionally framed as if I were fulfilling its intended function. What was left behind was a few rotten wood logs, two wires, a weathered tarpaulin, some paint and the scaffolding A stump. A broom.

Most of the time, I swept the floor free from water that had collected in the corners of the twisted floor. Watched textiles become soaked, extending the potential durability of it and dug them up from under the snow. I collected water in buckets that I later used to wash the floor with when it was at its warmest (to prevent cracks from forming). I removed dirt from the ground and remnants from previous use. I worked with what was there. I started tracking my activity on the walls with a marker. Movement. Placement. Displacement. Control.

Up until the exhibition at Kunsthallen, the work moved through the city in different forms. I liked that it could be carried in a plastic bag., but didnt like how it would get stuck into itself in the plastic bag. At one pint the textiles became too demanding, too present. They had to be forced into a frame or transformed into something else.

Towards the end, I had lost more than half of the material due to its never ending process.

Realizing failure became part of my method. Eventually some of the the textiles ended up under concrete. Some neatly folded. The work was never about control, but about an inevitable need for it. Would it ever reach a perfect state?