The Coldest Place in Town

The final site where the fire ended up being installed is an unused plaza off of the Langatta.  The building is left over from the early 70's and reflects the socialist design tendencies of those years.  An acquaintance of mine remarked that the "terrible building should be burned to the ground."  The plaza is underused because the layout of the architecture around the space brings in gusts of wind off of the fjord in an unfortunate way.  The space literally becomes a wind tunnel in between a pedestrian shopping street and an auto route.  The result is that even during the summer the plaza is one of the coldest spots in the town.  One resident told me that they have tried to have events there such as barbeques and concerts, but the winds are just unbearable.  

Three of Norway's oldest churches burned to the ground during the final stages of finishing this painting.  The causes of the fire were unknown at the time, yet arson was not suspected.  Norway has had a problem in the past with church arson.  Black metal enthused teens seem to share the brunt of blame for these arsons.   

Took some serious drilling to get through portions of the wall, and at one point a guy came out and yelled at me in Norwegian.  I told him I only spoke English, and he explained that he was an ear doctor, was conducting hearing tests inside, and my drilling was driving him nuts!  We stopped until he was through with work - 3:30 pm.

The day of install was after a storm that had passed through the previous night.  What the storm left were terrible winds for us to deal with.  At one point one of the panels that was leaning against a wall blew over and smashed face down on the concrete.  I was informed of this later.  Fortunately, there were only a few scratches to be found, which I touched up the next day.  Also, the construction site next door seemingly expanded overnight. (it was not there when the spot was originally chosen for the painting.)  The high winds blew sawdust onto the panels which adhered to the varnish and paint that was not quite dry.  So the pristine conditions of the studio yielded to nature, and the deterioration of the image, which is what the project was all about, started with a bang.  I went home later that night feeling a bit deflated.

brann

train: Sandnes - Oslo

reflection

coast looking southwest towards Denmark

Norway

looks like a nice screen.

Norway

train station in the middle of nowhere

roof of Oslo Opera House

This is a photo-banner by the artist Tom Sandberg.  

This is a sculpture by an Italian artist, Monica Bonvicini, it's called "She Lies" and resembles a glass iceberg
which plays on the Oslo Opera House in front of which it is situated.

I was trying to get this green refracted streak and I'm impressed the camera held on to it.

This is the new Oslo Opera House sits like an iceberg on the harbor.

Gargoyle with sinner on an Oslo church.

The walkway to the roof of the Opera House.  

more paint

3/31

3/30

Efes

the scene as I arrived

 In Berlin for a few days last week and was lucky enough to be able to catch the opening of Cyprien Gaillard's new show at Kunstwerk entitled "The Recovery of Discovery."  The "show" consists of a ziggurat of stacked boxes of beer.  I was told that there were approximately 70,000 beers making up the pyramid at the beginning of the night.  I say at the beginning, because by the time I arrived at 7 people were getting into it, and the bottles were already lining up against the walls.  One entered the installation by proceeding down one of several hallways that opened up into a large atrium.  Halfway down the hallway the cigarette smoke literally slapped you in the face, and upon entering the space one encountered a gracious public climbing, mingling, smoking, and yes - drinking.  You could open any box you wanted and just pull a beer out.  Some were already empty and being used as trash bins and ashtrays.  There was no real method to the opening of the boxes, but patterns developed near the top and around the sides.  The pyramid became steeper as the night went on with the first rows of boxes being decimated.  Women's high-heels went through the cardboard as did peoples' legs as they descended stepping into partially opened boxes.  I never saw any casualties though, and it must be said that the whole scene was quite civilized during the time I was there (which was too long).  It was the first opening I've ever been to where there was no danger of running out of booze.  This in itself presents another interesting situation, as I'm not sure if or when the installation closed (2am?).  On opening night one could drink all you wanted for free, but starting the next day the visitor to the space would have to pay 5 euro to sit and drink (as much as he wanted presumably, still a good deal!).  As this goes on the structure is not only destroyed, but consumed.  As much by our own vice as our willingness to engage with it and one another.

Gaillard, mostly known at least in the US for his Desniansky Raion video- (a collaboration with the musician Koudlam), is a good artist.  And despite the absurdity of this project, it conceptually fits into his oeuvre.  I was told that originally the beer used was to be from Cambodia - Angkor brand beer.  This of course referring to the ancient city and pyramids of Angkor wat, however, the logistics of this did not work out and hence the beer came from Turkey - Efes Beer, plan B.  The ancient Greek city of Ephesus,  the ruins of which are now in present day Turkey, was home to the Temple of Artemis.  The temple was not a pyramid, but probably rather looked like the Parthenon.  At any rate, it was destroyed and rebuilt numerous times - you can read about it here.   So in a way, conceptually at least, the Efes beer works a little better, though no one wants to erect Greek Columns out of beer.  (The beer company did custom make the boxes for this occasion.)  Presumably then, Gaillard's pyramid will be "rebuilt" at times as it is being destroyed.  I left around 10pm, the crowd was larger, louder, and smokier, yet there was hardly a dent made in the ziggurat.  I wonder how it looked later that night?  I did not return after the dinner.  Anyway, there are plenty of videos of this thing on youtube.  And I'm sure the net will keep us posted on its destruction.
One more thing of interest though was how this project could have happened at all.  I was discussing with my girlfriend how this would never fly in the states - especially publicly funded, which if I understand correctly parts of this were.  The beer alone cost 35.000 euro.  That's a nice gift to a city that doesn't seem to have any problems drinking beer - but then again it is Europe. . .

Cyprien on top of his ziggurat getting harassed by some random kids early in the night.
There were kids everywhere though, and some had beers.

View from the top

Sonny gritting her teeth and drinking warm beer like a good Fräulein should.
(She actually has better pics of all this.  Check FB)

A proper opening.

Under-painting finish

Under-Painting

A fresh Norwegian Spring snow this morn.