Tømmerblyantene, Mjøsa 2018.

100 logs shaped like color pencils and floated by the tugboat Sævat from Minnesund via Kapp and Hamar to Lillehammer.

Performance and sculptures at the beach in Hamar and Lillehammer.

​

This artwork was part of a large site speisifc art project "Mjøsa-an art project", initiated by Egil Martin Kurdøl and curated by Per Bjarne Boym.

Supported by Koro, Oppland/Hedmark Fylkeskommune

​

The idea for the work came as a response to the historic timber driving industry, and what such an activity would be like today. My vision - a childish, nostalgic, absurd and a playful picture of 100 giant color pencils - can be seen as a kind of “idea moving”. Seeing with playful eyes our surroundings can open up for new perspectives. Our surroundings are constantly changing and the chase for efficiency that does not play in harmony with nature and the environment is deadly.

Play is vital; it is essential for development of our ability to collaborate, and for a richly creative, cognitive and empathic relationship with nature and society.

Play is a process, action without hunting for results. Play is being present in the imaginary. This play with the story is one comment on what kind of potential that lies in our surroundings if you remove the requirements for utility and functionality, and give in to play and imagination. Mjøsa is a glossy sheet and the power of the crayons is boundless.

​

in 2023 a flood moved the sculpture Vase. 

 

 

HEAP/ VASE 

(timber driving on Mjøsa / installation),

Ridehusstranda beach, Hamar.

A bunch of tangled logs got stuck during timber driving.

The meaning of Heap/Vase can be associated with the tangles we can’t untangle in our own lives.  You can enter the sculpture, find new passages through, or contemplate it from outside. 

 

STACK / LUNNE 

Timber stacks: a stack of logs that will be moved on later. 

The nature of a temporary artwork is that it only exists for a short time- it will move on. A stack can be a symbol of transition stages. The objects have yet not reached their final stop. Maybe there is no such thing. My timber pencils have been in motion, as performative objects, now they lay quiet, charged with expectation and the story. I like to think about the work as without an end, that the material has the potential for reuse, to take new forms, as cellulose, as drawing paper, as toilet roll, like frameworks for new homes, like sawdust in a circus mane, like wood dust – stardust!

​

Thanks to the Mjøssamlingene, Miljømal, Løten Bygdesag, Fetsund Lenser, The 100-year-old tugboat Sævat, Ilseng prison, Vingrom Sangkor, Elin Mejergren, my family, my friends, and beautiful, strong, fragile Mjøsa. 

Photo: Reza Roshandel. Jiri Havran and Marianne Stranger

Sculpture building: Reza Roshandel and Trond Solberg

​