Scenes from the Garden - 2018
The theme of the project revolves around ideas of composition and physical memory, exploring how colour affects memory.
The use of the word the «Garden» in the title can be linked to the garden in an extended sense and is read in this context as the world / nature as a whole. The project is inspired by the eternal cycles in nature, it's ever changing seasons and ecology, motifs that can be seen in connection with the body's constant unconscious reaction to colors and light.
New works arise out of processes of physical play and work at the studio, work in which improvisation and expressive action are central elements. In this project, action replaces narrative and literary content, and movement is used partly as a starting point and partly as the end objective. The works arise out of a negotiation between pre-planned strategies and spur-of-the-moment ideas. Through the project, I explore the possibility of a feminine and female subjectivity within the historical canon of abstract expression.
Colour and surface indicate different weights and gravitas. The compositions point to possible shifts in the centres of gravity; the works are poised between a zero point and an end result. The various elements affect each other in a dynamic visual game, forming part of a spiraling movement. The spiral function as a re-occuring motif and incantation.
Included is self published artist’s book with contributions by Øystein Sjåstad:
«The surface of the canvas is like skin. The surface of the observer is skin. Experiencing a painting is a matter of ‘skin’ meeting skin, and this encounter is most keenly felt in abstract painting – in painting where thinking (in the sense of rational thought) is a virtually useless activity. So, the encounter between body and abstract painting involves friction between two skin surfaces. This friction is what we call ‘affect’: forces from the painting that connect with the body before it has time to think.»
From the essay: «Becoming nature». (August 2018) by Øystein Sjåstad, Associate Professor in Art History, Department of Philosophy, Ideas and Art History and Classical Languages, University of Oslo. Published in “Scenes from the Garden” an Artist's Book by Kristine Øksendal, 2018.
English translation by Rene Lauritsen.
Installation View: Vestfold Contemporary Art Center, Tønsberg, Norway. October 2018.
Photo credits: Carsten Aniksdal, Kristine Øksendal
© Kristine Øksendal 2018
Red August, oil, tempera and oilstick on canvas, 170 x 130 cm, 2018
A Painter’s View 1-5, watercolour, 31 x 23 cm, 2016-2017
October, oil and tempera on canvas, 120 x 95 cm, 2016
In the Garden (Yellow), etching, 24 x 18 cm, 2018
By the Sea, oil and tempera on canvas, 140 x 210 cm, 2018
September, oil and tempera on canvas, 120 x 95 cm, 2018
In the Garden (Blue), etching, 24 x 18 cm, 2018
Sea Shore, etching, 24 x 18 cm, 2018
Detail, Sea Shore, etching, 2018
June, oil and tempera on canvas, 100 x 85 cm, 2016
A Painter’s View, watercolour, 31 x 23 cm, 2016
Scenes from the Garden 1-5, watercolor, 41 x 31 cm, 2016-2017
Scenes from the Garden 5, watercolour, 41 x 31 cm, 2016