IN THE CLOSET⃣ presents “Color Prism from NATURE: The Blurred Border between Land and Sea“

by Hilde Hauan Johnsen

Hauan Johnsen focus on combining two units of measurements: One around her private property boundaries and the second on borderlines of greater geo-political interest.

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She very often finds herself collecting plants and leaving them to dry. While they are hanging outside during sun and blizzards she often wonder if the same living plants will be here in the future? And While driving one night from Ben Gurion airport to Ramallah listening to hope and despair from a taxi driver she wondered if new borders could ever be redrawn?

 

When in Pasvik along the border Jakobselv outside Kirkenes she often think about the Norwegian border to Russia. Scare-scenarios between the two countries are also escalating event thought we all know that people, trade, art and culture has for centuries been crossing this border fairly freely.

 

Back at Berg, a small piece of land owned by Hauan Johnsen´s family for generations, she finds herself standing in the sea as far as a horse can reach to gather the seaweed growing there. She collects flowers along the beach and collect soil from her own borderland. Hauan Johnsen measures her property outer boundary and all that she cannot measure while wondering if climate change or other factors will change any of this?

 

Hilde Hauan (b. 1953) lives and works in Tromsø.

Hauan Johnsen is an artist who is constantly finding new ways to combine traditional textiles techniques with new technology. The interest in this interconnection is rooted in curiosity for materiality, the tactile, and the sensing in combination with spatial textile installations and sculpture. Since 2007, Hauan has collaborated with Urstad in many large fibre-optic sound installations. The installations are total joint works and exhibited in white cubes, black box or as SPRANG in a barn from the 18th century. The plant dyeing of textiles has been a part of Hauan’s practice for many years. Art projects where she maps and archives landscapes/places by plant dyeing of large textiles. For example, the borders between Norway / Russia and Palestine / Israel. Can she travel back in two years to find the same plants and the same borders? Geopolitical questions are asked in these works of art. In 2018, she was awarded the Ulrik Hendriksen Honorary Prize.

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Hauan's solo and collaborative project has been presented at e.g. Tromsø Kunstforening, Nordnorsk kunstmuseum, Sogn og Fjordane kunstmuseum, Hå gamle Prestegaard , Trafo Kunsthall Oslo, Barents Spetakkel Kirkenes, Lydgalleriet i Bergen, The International Theater Festival in Dale, Galleri Nord-Norge Harstad, Nordnorsk kunstsenter, Svolvær (NO), Art Salong , Luleå (SE), Kunsthall Rønnebæksholm (DK), Textil triennalen (FI) (SE) (DK), Kunstnernes Hus Århus (DK), Kiruna Folkets Hus (SE), The Palestina Museum, Bir West Bank Time ( PL ) , The Palestine Art Center, Jerusalem. Nordic House, Reykjavik (IS), and more.