Time has changed, the opinion has changed, at least a little, the areas for how and where to make art has been widened. New generations of young artists are more openminded to make art outside the narrow art world, they have a more positive view on collaborations, and the opposite way; curators are also now turning their heads towards these areas.
Most of my proposed art projects are too big for me to deal with alone, so I am often part of different planning teams, as an independent artist. The most important thing is to be invited in to projects at an early stage, so the art foundation and art concept can contribute to defining the projects from the beginning. During the process I talk about art as a way of thinking, explaining the art project for people not interested in art. I have to convince the purchasers that spending money on my art projects, will raise the total value of the project; especially immaterial values like reputation, identity and traffic safety. And I have to be very confident about what the concept core of the art project is to survive processes that can span several years, be subject to changes, such as budgets or construction methods, and people in charge that quit being changed by new people with other agendas.
Your artworks are often interdisciplinary; between architecture, landscape/land art, sculpture and they are often big projects, engaging different types of resources. Can you tell our readers more about the collaborative aspect of your work?
There is quite a difference between the way of working with art commissions, and the ordinary way; with curators and an art committee as a secure buffer between the artists and the purchaser, contra working with art from a more solitude point of view. The ordinary way is a slow walk towards fruition, and it is expected that you deliver a piece of art. In the other way the artist is working on the same level as the architects, landscape-architects or engineers. It is a much more dynamic way of working. You have to be alert, be in front, and quickly comprehend changes or new constraints. I like that. The ordinary working process with art commissions is, in a way, a lonely process, but being a part of a collaborative theme is dynamic, it sharpens your ideas.
Artists working with big collaborative projects at similar level as mine, like Olafur Eliasson and Jeppe Hein, have solved their collaborations by running their own art companies with several employees. I prefer to stay alone, and then be linked up with teams in each project. Anyhow, working with infrastructure is a very specialised knowledge, so we are a group of people spread around who have followed each other during many years now, and collaborated in many common projects. A loose team of people that like, trust and support each other.
I am still quite alone as a visual artist working continuously with art connected to infrastructure, and I do not think I know about any other female artists working like I do.
Since we revolve around the issue of communication this time, we have one more question: in your opinion, can art change the future for inter-human communication?
How can art help us make sense of these complex histories?
A big yes!
One of my fads is that art is a way of thinking rather than the result after a working period or process, like the sculpture, a painting or an object etc. By involving artists in different discussions about society, urban planning or other social relationships, artists can elevate projects they are involved in. Of course, artists are not an homogenous group of people. Some artists can neither communicate nor collaborate. But there are artists today who collaborate in big projects of importance to society. I would say, at the same free level as philosophers, but with a more practical point of view. Sometimes though, I think of myself, that my position in such settings is to be the Jester.
Let me give an example, how I as an artist, have changed a projects mentality: The road planning project I am involved in now, E39 Rogfast in the Stavanger region, where the Public Roads Administration are planning to construct the worlds longest and deepest sub-sea road-tunnel in the world, the deepest point is approximately 385 m beneath the sea level. By pointing out how they could win the opinion by using this very special project to develop new ways and new thoughts, - or, so to speak, coordinate already existing knowledge; how to construct roads and tunnels in a more climate friendly way, I talked about art projects dealing with these issues, how artists work in the field, and showed them examples. A small seed started to grow. It is almost banal, but putting climate friendly solutions on the top of the project pyramid, has never occurred to the Public Roads Administrations. In arbitrary details here and there, yes, but never as the leading theme, and not at all thoughts about possibilities of maybe gaining energy from a huge project like this. Now they do. This project is pointed out to be a pilot project for research and new solutions.
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