In the exhibition «Retellings» at Buskerud Kunstnersenter 2019, Tiril Schrøder and Anne Thomassen show drawing and sculpture. The exhibition is based on the idea of the Norwegian identity: Everyday life as it unfolded and was presented in connection with nation building in the 19th century and in our own time, as well as nature and our use of this, for example for identity building on Facebook. The national narrative about «the Norwegian» and Norwegian nature, has a nationalistic and exclusive undertone towards «the others», and at the same time an identity in constant change, where elements from other parts of the world are constantly integrated into our everyday life and mythology
The artists enter into the theme with their own work, joint work and work that responds to each other's. Schrøder works with digital techniques, while Thomassen works with ceramic materials. Thomassen and Schrøder have both worked with themes with roots in romance, an interest in nature and how it is used as a symbol today, combined with an interest in popular culture and in the narrative that can lie in visual art.
Schrøder works with digital techniques, printed on watercolor paper, to retell drawings and watercolors by Johannes Flintoe and Heinrich August Grosch. Through their use of drawing and watercolor as documentation of life in Norway, Flintoe and Grosch have helped to shape and build the myth on which we base our own image today. The national romantic art helped to build up under the image of "the typically Norwegian" through fjords, mountains, peasant life, and the nascent interest in climbing mountain peaks and hiking in nature.
Thematically, Thomassen work often revolves around human ambitions, desires and aspirations in the face of nature or technology. In the exhibition, she shows works that respond to Flintoe's many mountain landscapes. These address in different ways identity and human drive or dreams. She uses the landscape as a tableau to travel in time and space through art history and popular culture and thus tell new stories. She also shows a series of new works that respond to Tiril Schrøder's drawings. Based on roots, she explores cultural heritage in a critical light.
The exhibition is supported by Bildene Kunstneres Hjelpefond.
