Page 60 - Art-Professionals

GRO FOLKAN

Lives and works in Tromsoe and Oslo, Norway
www.grofolkan.no

THE IMAGES BETWEEN experienced that when I manage to be in these gates, a new

Our culture is to a marked degree defined in literary categories, state of mind arises, a new contact because I also am nature.
words, numbers. Everything has a name. But that is not the And then it can happen that a wild bird sits down by me, or
reality. Reality is coherent, and also includes that which a raven comes down and says something.
is between the categories, between the named objects. My pictures are gates, instruments. The real pictures, the
To explore that which is between - with my method - is images are not the pictures on my canvases, but the images
my project. Reality may be comprehended as a language coming into being in the mind of the onlooker.
addressing us. The elements of this language, ”the words” I often use oxidized metals to add colour and substance
are other than our everyday words, and include also what is and to facilitate the layer underneath to shine through. I use
between the words, between the categories, our categories. gold, white, red, green gold, silver, brass, copper, aluminium,

What is a tree? The stem, of course, the branches, twigs and paladium, platinum. I also use interference colours when
leaves, the roots - but what about the life - supporting fungi suitable. The colours change from red to green etc. when the
and microbes between the finest roothairs? What about observer moves relative to the picture. Interference colours
the oxygen close to the leaves? What about the bird´s nest? suit the metals very well. Some of these effects are difficult to
What about the birds song early in the morning when the sun display in immobile digital pictures. I have spent a lot of time
rises and the rays stroke the top of the tree? What about the travelling and learning, being in other settings, in New York,
shadow below? Southwest, The Four Corners, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah,

Many of us remember the famous Haiku poem about the Arizona, Berlin, Japan, China, and have sought out expressive,
flower falling from a branch of a tree, and suddenly rising unspoiled Nature, particularly in North Norway.
again, going upwards. Is it a butterfly? Pulled into the moment To accomplish what I am trying to, I must create ”air” between
between the flower and the butterfly, we suddenly get access the layers of my paintings, there must be space and breath
to a part of reality we did not know before. Look at a landscape, between them. I have worked many years to develop a
or a field with straws. Consider the wealth of significance technique allowing this, to try to create a weightlessnes
and content between the named categories. I think of my as in the Haiku poem mentioned above, disturbing our set
pictures as gates, entrances to the language between. I have categories, opening the gates.

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