The House and The Root
Memories and Metamorphoses
For my exhibition “The House and The Root - Memories and Metamorphoses” at KinoKino Kunstsal in Sandnes, Norway, I combined my earlier project entitled “The Root” and a new photo and video project dealing with the dreams which are so present in an analysis of the House with its various rooms and floors. Both projects were based on French philosopher Gaston Bachelard´s (1884–1962) essay “Earth and Reveries of Repose” from 1948.
The main piece of my project about the House was a video piece entitled “The House of our Birth and the House of Dreams” (19:50 min.). Various analogue photo series were presented in a more traditional way, but also as an installation consisting of several unframed works on display on one of the walls on the exhibition space. The largest piece on display was a 3 x 3-meter photo wallpaper. The photographs were entitled “Silent Echoes”, referring to the echoes of the past and the various layers of memories and stories which are so present in a deserted house.
My point of departure when working on the theme of the House was the ideas and symbols we assign to the house’s four walls and different floors. The memories of the house we grew up in often strongly differ from reality as it actually was. The proportions are different, the rooms are only fragments as flickering images. For some of us it is nevertheless still possible to recreate an inner, perfect basic layout of that house with its different floors: the basement, living quarters, bedrooms and the attic.
In the video work “The House of Our Birth and the House of Dreams”, a narrator reading Bachelard’s text dwells on facts versus imagination in our relationship with the House and the places where we grew up. The memories of the House have deep roots in our subconscious and is something we carry with us all our lives.
Excerpt from the Video “The House of our Birth and the House of Dreams”, HD Video, 19:55 min