Video, 3'19'' Click to play
Filmed in Haagse Bos, the Hague and in Gallery 4, KABK
Soundtrack composed for alto saxophone
LEFT: Works by Anne Grete Berg, Iver Uhre Dahl, Anna lesiczka and Maya Bahner (from left to right) presented in Gallery 4 at KABK
The works Slanted House and This Wall etc. have as their departure point a story I was once told about a trend in the painting of houses in Norway in the 19th century. At the time, white paint was particularly expensive, making it in a way a signifier of wealth. According to the story, those with the means to buy a little bit of white paint would paint only one of their facades white. This would be the most visible facade, either the one facing the road or in the case of houses on the coast, the ocean. The story implied that the white wall served mostly to portray the residents of the house as being more affluent than they were. Other than that, the white wall did not seem to have any practical applications. They were literally "putting up a facade" for their observers. I found the story touching in the way it described a very human desire to show off only the good aspects of your life.
Slanted House has one facade covered with a glossy white laquer. The rest of the house is covered in a varnish that darkens the wood, making it look old and sticky. It is constructed at an angle, with the outward facing wall painted white, as if it is crouching away from the viewer to hide behind its single painted wall.
In This Wall Was Painted For the Strangers Who Observe it With a Glance in the Moment of Passing, the house is portrayed by a canal in a forest and in a white gallery space. The shots of the video alternate between the house shown at a distance and close images of the crackling paint and dirt on its walls. A composition was written for the video to be played on alto saxophone. The composition follows the alternating shots of the video by alternating in pace and pitch, reaching a sort of crescendo as the house is shown in the gallery space.
