AiR Green residents spring 2023
Since 2016, Norwegian Textile Artists (NTK) have hosted an artist residency at Søndre Green farm in Krødsherad, Norway. With this residency, NTK aims to create an arena for concentration and in-depth research, to contribute to the development and presentation of textile art, and to promote contact between artists who use different approaches to textile media.
NTK offers two kinds of residencies at Søndre Green farm, AiR Green og Air Green Studio. AiR Green is for four artists staying at the farm together for four weeks. Studio is for one artist with a duration of two months. Both residencies takes place in spring and autumn.
This spring, Lucia Veronesi, Lars Preisser, Kristine Vintervold and Rachel Johnston will stay at the farm from April 24 to May 30. Damien Ajavon is the studio resident from April 11 to June 6.
The participating artists are selected by the board of NTK after an annual open call. Both Norwegian and international artists are welcome to apply. Read more about AiR Green.
Cover image: Lucia Veronesi – The Distance of the Eternal (Williamina Fleming), 2022. “My Scottish maid could do better”. Fabrics, printed fabrics, sewing thread, wood. 140 x 220 cm ca. Photo Credits: Francesco Allegretto.
AiR Green
Lars Preisser
Lars Preisser b. 1984 in Lindau (Lake Constance), Germany is a multidisciplinary artist working in the disciplines of weaving, drawing and moving image. His projects often involve many years of making and research and result in concise formations of detailed drawings, machines, textiles and other mediums. These could be described as surreal reconfigurations that relate current issues, hidden histories, lived experiences or industrial materials and machines that he is connected to through his own family and industrial heritage. Lars Preisser grew up in Berlin (Germany) and holds degrees in textile art (BVA) from Otago Polytechnic School of Art Dunedin (Aotearoa/ New Zealand) and media art/ expanded cinema (MA) at HGB Leipzig (Germany). His works have been exhibited internationally at Blue Oyster Gallery Dunedin, Objectspace Auckland, Bauhaus Dessau, nGbK Berlin, Contextile 2022 Textile Art Biennial among others. He currently works and lives in Berlin.
“Prior to this residency I already became interested the discovery of oil in Norway and in the dichotomy of economic benefits and ecological problems this created. During some further research I stumbled upon the so called Inventio Fortunata which is a mysterious book from the 14th century that describes the North Pole as a large black magnetic rock surrounded by strong currents. It was believed to be the source of immense wealth. The parallels of this black rock promising great fortune and then the actual discovery of oil which often is described as black gold are somewhat spooky. I plan to work along the lines of such records of mysterious maps, navigational errors, mad explorers and ruthless industrialists linking them to ecological issues and other mistakes that we conceded in this old quest for wealth. This may lead to a number of works that challenge this sort of “progress”. Being in this northern territory surrounded by nature with access to simple weaving tools seems very fitting for this task.”
Kristine Vintervold
Kristine Vintervold lives and works in Oslo.
“Primarily, I work with abstract drawing art combined with textiles and traditional dry felting and wet felting techniques. The materials I use are mainly residual or surplus materials. The process of dry felting and wet felting is extensive and requires a lot of preparatory work. I break the materials down by unraveling knitted garments and twisting yarn into smaller threads. I use hand carders to distort threads, textiles and wool felt into an airy and fluffy material. The yarn thread is the line I draw with. Like, for example, the yarn from a knitted sweater – when I unravel the sweater, the yarn threads bear the mark of having been a garment and have a naturally wavy shape. I put all these elements layer upon layer over a piece of wool felt. The motif is then dry felted to the underlay using a felting needle.
By tracing the material’s history along the seams, I create a new story, another whole with remnants and traces of the material’s original origin. I love how the traditional felting technique requires so much but also changes the expression along the way. With each round of wet felting, the work takes on a more organic and tactile feel. There is always a certain amount of uncertainty connected to developments along the way. Have I applied too hard, will the materials adhere properly to the underlay, will it be fine?
For over a year I have collected textile waste materials and am looking forward to using the AiR Green residency to experiment and try out ideas. I am also looking forward to discussing subjects with the other artists. A big thank you to the board of Norske Tekstilkunstnere for this opportunity. Thanks also to Håndlag at Unikum for the donation of residual materials.”
Rachel Johnston
“I am hoping to use my stay at Søndre Farm to further my thinking about the experience of being in a landscape, using material process as the basis for asking questions about how we might create an imaginative space that allows us to connect with and value the natural world. I am hoping to develop some practical ways of working using cloth weaving techniques and to expand my exploration of stitch, which I see as method for drawing. Connections between the cumulative process of weaving and the formation of geological structures through time will be a focus. The binary structure of the loom and the pattern of weave are something I would like to experiment with as my work takes a more geometric turn – the threading and repetition add the potential for fault lines and disruption, echoing ideas around unravelling and ecological collapse.”
Lucia Veronesi
“During my residency I would like to continue experimenting with the relationship between language and fabric. The stitched word becomes a formal element that integrates and dialogues with fabric shapes that are stitched together. The plants near the residence will be the primary inspiration sources: they are also usually used for dyeing textiles. This period will be precious time to continue studying the work of Hannah Ryggen, whose combination of abstraction and figuration fascinates me, as well as her political and social activism, which inevitably is reflected in her powerful tapestries.
What does the landscape tell us and teach us, be it domestic, intimate, familiar, natural, or urban, together with the stories of those who inhabit it or have experienced it? How many stories, with their consequences and implications, teach us to understand our time? Starting from these questions, Lucia Veronesi, who lives and works in Venice, Italy, searches for anthropological, historical, and physical elements that make landscapes and stories unique. She reworks them through collage, textiles, video, painting, photography, and drawing, in order to obtain a new version of space. She works on visions poised between what is real and an abstract dimension, at times almost fable-like: an ambivalent narrative, somewhere between documentation and the imaginary, which entails a transformation, an overturning of the rules.”
Lucia Veronesi has participated in several artistic residencies both in Italy and abroad, including KH Messen, Ålvik, Norway; Mustarinda, Hiryinsalmi, Finland; Sanskriti Kendra, New Delhi, India; Fondazione Ratti, Como; Defualt17, Ramdom, Gagliano del Capo. Thanks to these experiences, she has expanded her work in different directions, also collaborating with other artists. Lucia has exhibited nationally and internationally. Among her most recent solo exhibitions: Da solo nel bosco, D3082 Art Gallery, Venice, 2023, È successo il mare, Fondazione Pino Pascali, Polignano a Mare, (Ba), 2020, Fuori una gran notte di stelle, Muratcentoventidue Gallery, Bari, 2016, In piena presenza, Yellow, Varese, 2015. Group shows include De Rerum Natura, Circolo degli ufficiali della Marina, Venice, 2022; A Bartebly, Galleria Alberta Pane, Venice, 2021; Whatever it takes, AplusA, Venice, 2020; Sta come torre, Museo Castromediano, Lecce, 2020; Libere tutte, Casa Testori, Novate Milanese, Milan, 2019; For Heaven’s Sake.4th Jerusalem Biennale, 2019; Supersimmetry, Strizzi Space, Cologne, 2018; Che arte fa oggi in Italia, 69. Michetti Prize, Michetti Foundation, Francavilla al Mare, Pescara, 2018. She showed her videos at numerous national and international festivals, including 32.TFF, Torino Film Festival; MUFF 10. Montréal Underground Film Festival, Canada; Floating Cinema, selected by Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice; ODAAQ#10, Video Festival, France; Visualcontainer, Milan; Proyector 6th International Video Art Festival, Spain; Facade Video Festival, Bulgaria; Lago Film Fest, Revine Lago; VideoArt Yearbook, 8th edition, Bologna. In 2018 he won the 69th. Edition of the Michetti Prize, while in 2002, she received the Alida Premian award for young female artists. In 2011 she founded Spazio Punch, a non-profit space based in Giudecca, which she co-directed until 2015.
luciaveronesi.com / @lucipictures
AiR Green Studio
Damien Ajavon
“I live in Oslo and am a queer, non-binary, Afropean textile artist of Senegalese and Togolese origin born in Paris. In my work, I explore the different methods by which textile fibers can be manipulated. I use my African and Western influences as vehicles for my narratives and creative approaches. I have had extensive international experience refining my expertise and technique in Europe, Africa, and North America. My practice is rooted in my culture, influenced by my African, Western, and queer community, which serves as a tool for creating representative textiles.
As part of my master’s project, I am investigating the fluid nature of time and identity politics in craft. I will share my story in a journal using some of my archives. I want to understand how my craft is influenced by my Western location (Norway) and my cultural heritage. I am trying to find a way to share my journey as a Queer Afropean Craft Maker. I want to present my practice as an embodied encounter with textiles and imagery. I am looking for ways to navigate this northern land using my cultural heritage and identity as a tool. The intention is to look at it and understand what the visual does to us on an embodied level. I practice West African weaving and photograph myself, presenting it in textile form. I decolonize my practice by being in Norway and building the first Manjak loom.”
damienajavon.com / @damien.a.a