In June of 2010, I arrived in Norway to study and document the experience of driving along several roads that had been given the special title of Tourist Route. This designation signifies the natural beauty of the area and the presence of roadside viewpoints and contemporary architectural installations. My intention in visiting and painting along each route was to find a means to express my observations about the comprehensive experience of the roadways and the ways in which they shape our understanding of nature.
This project was supported through grants provided by the American Scandinavian Foundation and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Washington, DC.
Activities
June 8-9: Oslo. Visit with Even Smith Wergeland at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.
June 9-13: Gamle Strynefjellsveg.
June 13- 16: Gamie Trollstigen.
June 17- 20: Sognefjell.
June 21 – 24: Oslo. Visit galleries. Meet with artist Lars Elling. Meet with Ministry of Culture officials Eva Vincent and Mette Michelsen.
For several weeks, I drove a rental car along three routes in western Norway: Gamle Strynefjellsveg, Gamie Trollstigen, and Sognefjell. This region and the routes within it were selected after many discussions with researcher Janike Larsen, a member of the “Routes Roads and Landscapes” group at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design with which I was associated for this project. While in Oslo, I visited Even Smith Wergeland, a PhD candidate and another member of the “Routes” team. Even described how the designs for roadways in Norway have been produced through a combination of utopian schema and difficult natural geography, and this description proved to be applicable in my interpretation of the rural routes I traveled.
While these roadways have always been functional routes for traveling from point A to point B, they have been recently re-imagined to facilitate the way that we experience nature. It was my hypothesis that our sense of a place happens not simply through a single viewpoint, like the many created along these routes, but through space, time, and motion. In other words, by traveling along the road, we gain a feeling about that environment and our place within it.
My project was to divide the route into intervals and create a painting every 3 kilometers (10 paintings total) on lightweight aluminum. This method produced several interesting results. First, the experience of the roadway became more democratic; equal weight was given to different aspects of the roadway and surrounding environment. Second, the multiplicity of the series encouraged a compare / contrast evaluation between the panels. My preferred working time was between 8 pm and midnight when the long twilight created a palette of muted hues, soft gradations, and a narrow contrast range. At several points, mountains were first visible in the distance, and then rose in scale and proximity in the subsequent painting. Third, the working process of painting on-site provided a means for describing the details that I saw in each place. I also kept notebook with entries on the materials at each site, the duration of the visit, and conditions of the day.
Reflections
Before this project, my work mainly involved hyper-realistic paintings of views from within the car. By showing rain or reflections on the windshield, these images revealed a separation between the viewer and the outside world, a dynamic that never allowed the viewer to pass beyond a two-dimensional surface. With this project, I redirected many of my interests in how roads guide our experiences, but in a way that involved more of my own actions. As I worked on these paintings outdoors, often returning to a place over and over, I gained a responsibility and authorship over my visual descriptions. The paintings were an analysis of what and how I saw what was before me at that moment. If I were to return to the site a week or year later, the site would be subtly different, as would I. To use painting, as a form of documentation, both of the site and the artist, is a shift in my working method I hope to pursue further.
This project was supported through grants provided by the American Scandinavian Foundation and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Washington, DC.
Activities
June 8-9: Oslo. Visit with Even Smith Wergeland at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.
June 9-13: Gamle Strynefjellsveg.
June 13- 16: Gamie Trollstigen.
June 17- 20: Sognefjell.
June 21 – 24: Oslo. Visit galleries. Meet with artist Lars Elling. Meet with Ministry of Culture officials Eva Vincent and Mette Michelsen.
For several weeks, I drove a rental car along three routes in western Norway: Gamle Strynefjellsveg, Gamie Trollstigen, and Sognefjell. This region and the routes within it were selected after many discussions with researcher Janike Larsen, a member of the “Routes Roads and Landscapes” group at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design with which I was associated for this project. While in Oslo, I visited Even Smith Wergeland, a PhD candidate and another member of the “Routes” team. Even described how the designs for roadways in Norway have been produced through a combination of utopian schema and difficult natural geography, and this description proved to be applicable in my interpretation of the rural routes I traveled.
While these roadways have always been functional routes for traveling from point A to point B, they have been recently re-imagined to facilitate the way that we experience nature. It was my hypothesis that our sense of a place happens not simply through a single viewpoint, like the many created along these routes, but through space, time, and motion. In other words, by traveling along the road, we gain a feeling about that environment and our place within it.
My project was to divide the route into intervals and create a painting every 3 kilometers (10 paintings total) on lightweight aluminum. This method produced several interesting results. First, the experience of the roadway became more democratic; equal weight was given to different aspects of the roadway and surrounding environment. Second, the multiplicity of the series encouraged a compare / contrast evaluation between the panels. My preferred working time was between 8 pm and midnight when the long twilight created a palette of muted hues, soft gradations, and a narrow contrast range. At several points, mountains were first visible in the distance, and then rose in scale and proximity in the subsequent painting. Third, the working process of painting on-site provided a means for describing the details that I saw in each place. I also kept notebook with entries on the materials at each site, the duration of the visit, and conditions of the day.
Reflections
Before this project, my work mainly involved hyper-realistic paintings of views from within the car. By showing rain or reflections on the windshield, these images revealed a separation between the viewer and the outside world, a dynamic that never allowed the viewer to pass beyond a two-dimensional surface. With this project, I redirected many of my interests in how roads guide our experiences, but in a way that involved more of my own actions. As I worked on these paintings outdoors, often returning to a place over and over, I gained a responsibility and authorship over my visual descriptions. The paintings were an analysis of what and how I saw what was before me at that moment. If I were to return to the site a week or year later, the site would be subtly different, as would I. To use painting, as a form of documentation, both of the site and the artist, is a shift in my working method I hope to pursue further.
