Dancing bodies, rhythm and movement. How to create a still image showing speed and movement? How to remove parts of the body and at the same time show a figurative expression, simultaneously soft and firm with contrasts exploring light and darkness?
In this exhibition, she presents the excerpts from the series
Dancers & Inverted
Dancers
The series Dancers are a study of bodies in which flow, movement and emotions are explored through simple mediums like water, watercolour, ink and delicate pencil drawings. When the images are finished by hand, they are scanned in high resolution, cleaned up and prepared to give a pure and firm finish. The white is ultra-white, the black soft as velvet, with all nuances in between. Nothing is left to chance. The painted bodies are figurative though fragmented. They have speed and emotions, at the same time quietly melancholic and sometimes dreamy.
Inverted
Only two images from this series are presented. They are important as they counteract the pure black-and-white images. Contrast is everything - both in each individual work and in the exhibition as a whole. The insects are first drawn, then painted in watercolour, ink and gouache. Thereafter scanned and worked on digitally to give a new expression. The colours present as negatives, the colour black as velvety soft and complete. The artist is fascinated by insects: they are beautiful yet grotesque, delicate and mythical. Here, they are transformed to dark individuals and scaled to giants.
The images are printed digitally on Epson large format printer, on photorag 308g paper. They are signed and numbered in 15 or 35 copies. Matched white passepartout, glass and black frames. The expression is firm, pure and simple.
Karen Gjelsvik Hetland is an illustrator with a Masters degree in Contemporary Art from Sotheby's Institute of Art, London. In the period 2013-2020 she worked as Art Director, then Textile Designer for the Varner Group. Previously, Hetland was Creative Director for SVA Magazine, which is a Norwegian biannual fashion and art magazine with an international distribution. At the same time, she worked as Assistant Curator and Coordinator at Oslo Kunstforening OKF. Now, with her newly established firm Studio KAH, she works as a Textile Designer for the fashion and interior industry in Norway.
At PitStop, Hetland is presenting artwork in which form and materials are explored. She mixes media/mediums like ink and water together with delicate pencil drawings and watercolor. She explores the spontaneous expressions arising from the interaction between the flow of paint and other materials. The images are edited and finalized digitally. This is her first exhibition.
The exhibition is curated by Åse/ By Bjørkheim
