JOURNALS

When I am creating a new piece it is very important to me to position myself in the space where the piece will be displayed and imagine it in that space.

Before I actually visited Galleri F15 I had seen a number of photographs of the gallery on the internet. From that, I could just see that it was a beautiful building and space surrounded by a wonderful environment. However, we can only get limited visual information through the medium of photographs.

As part of my preparations ahead of starting on my piece, I wanted to visit Galleri F15 to see for myself the environmental factors such as the light, water, plants, wind and temperature. It is also vital for me to see the scale of the building and the space and get a sense of the overall atmosphere.

This was also true of Gabriella's works; I had seen her works through the medium of the internet but I had never seen the actual works themselves.

For me, the feel and the type of materials on the surface of a textile piece is very important, and I believe that these have a powerful influence on the presence of the piece as a whole as well as the space surrounding the piece. For these reasons I felt I could not begin to think about collaboration until I had had a chance to meet Gabriella face-to-face, talk to her and see her work for myself.

Gabriella's pieces are filled with a unique sense of presence, even just by looking at the photographs I could appreciate that the things she was considering as she created her pieces were very similar to the things that I consider. One is that the space where the piece is to be placed is extremely important. Another thing is that her pieces encompass key ideas such as primeval life, ancient oceans, past-future-present, and memory.

Until I visited Galleri F15 and met Gabriella and saw her works, I did not have any detailed plans regarding my own piece. I will always value the inspiration I got from experiencing the presence of the space and the works.

The wonderful atmosphere and space of Galleri 15 gave me inspiration for a number of new pieces. Also Gabriella's expressive pieces gave me some guidance as to the direction when we create one collaborative space between us.

At the moment we are still a long way from having a clear image of the whole piece, but during my visit in Norway I felt assured that the awareness we hold in common towards the piece will form a basis for the best results.