Drifting, detail, photomicrography, Tone Bjordam, 2013-16
Catalogue text by Jessica Kempe for the group exhibition Present Nature at Alma Löv Museum of Unexpected Art in Sweden 2023 in English and Swedish.
Also published in English on the front page of this website.
Nature from the depths
On the phone, Tone Bjordam sings a Norwegian folk song to me. The voice rises from the depths, with range in the timbre. "I enjoy dancing too", she says. Tone Bjordam sings like her video-recorded water paintings look. It isn’t easy at the beginning to understand how the colour installations are made. In the Rococo Cinema here at Alma Löv, the enchantment has already begun through projections and photographs, set to music by ecologist and composer, Marten Scheffer.
The method used is actually quite simple. Fundamentally, an illuminated, transparent container is filled with water. Like an aquarium. Sometimes equipped with a background image. It is when the colour pigments are dripped into the water that the painting begins. As natural pigments and inks slowly sink to the bottom, a chain of formations unfold. Abstract expressionism live. Miracle? Not yet. The transformation occurs when the entire process is videotaped upside down.
With the movement directed upwards, from the depth to the surface, the sequence of images flows straight towards nature. And art history. I see trees, plants and organisms in dramatic change, cascades of steam, light and ash, eruption of smoke and fire. Delightful vitality and dystopian destruction. Artists such as Peder Balke, Hilma af Klint and Gerhard Richter echo in the background. But Tone Bjordam also resembles the video artist Pippilotti Rist.
No wonder that Marten Scheffer saw in Tone Bjordam's painting installations an artistic relative to his own research on the climate crises and transformations in nature. Together, they have participated in a series of climate conferences and built bridges between visual arts, science, and music.
"I haven't studied natural science, but I'm good at systems and structures," Tone Bjordam answers when I wonder where her visual world comes from. From a mineral kingdom, a forest, and a lake, she tells me, where she collected patterns as a child. A treasure hunt. On the family farm, the rare mineral ‘sunstone’ was discovered. Geologists from all over the world went there to examine the stone's orange-glittering core.
Here at Alma Löv, Tone Bjordam's textile and sculptural studies of lichens and crystals are shown. In the blue container pavilion, you’ll find her microscope, for a closeup look at the universe.
Also published in English on the front page of this website.
Nature from the depths
On the phone, Tone Bjordam sings a Norwegian folk song to me. The voice rises from the depths, with range in the timbre. "I enjoy dancing too", she says. Tone Bjordam sings like her video-recorded water paintings look. It isn’t easy at the beginning to understand how the colour installations are made. In the Rococo Cinema here at Alma Löv, the enchantment has already begun through projections and photographs, set to music by ecologist and composer, Marten Scheffer.
The method used is actually quite simple. Fundamentally, an illuminated, transparent container is filled with water. Like an aquarium. Sometimes equipped with a background image. It is when the colour pigments are dripped into the water that the painting begins. As natural pigments and inks slowly sink to the bottom, a chain of formations unfold. Abstract expressionism live. Miracle? Not yet. The transformation occurs when the entire process is videotaped upside down.
With the movement directed upwards, from the depth to the surface, the sequence of images flows straight towards nature. And art history. I see trees, plants and organisms in dramatic change, cascades of steam, light and ash, eruption of smoke and fire. Delightful vitality and dystopian destruction. Artists such as Peder Balke, Hilma af Klint and Gerhard Richter echo in the background. But Tone Bjordam also resembles the video artist Pippilotti Rist.
No wonder that Marten Scheffer saw in Tone Bjordam's painting installations an artistic relative to his own research on the climate crises and transformations in nature. Together, they have participated in a series of climate conferences and built bridges between visual arts, science, and music.
"I haven't studied natural science, but I'm good at systems and structures," Tone Bjordam answers when I wonder where her visual world comes from. From a mineral kingdom, a forest, and a lake, she tells me, where she collected patterns as a child. A treasure hunt. On the family farm, the rare mineral ‘sunstone’ was discovered. Geologists from all over the world went there to examine the stone's orange-glittering core.
Here at Alma Löv, Tone Bjordam's textile and sculptural studies of lichens and crystals are shown. In the blue container pavilion, you’ll find her microscope, for a closeup look at the universe.
Natur ur djupet
I telefonen sjunger Tone Bjordam för mig, en norsk folkvisa.
Rösten stiger ur djupet, med räckvidd i klangen. "Jag tycker om att dansa också", skjuter hon in. Tone Bjordam sjunger som hennes videofilmade vattenmåleri ser ut. Det är inte lett i början att först förstå hur färginstallationerna går till. I Rokokosalens projektioner och fotografier här på Alma Löv har förtrollningen redan ägt rum. Tonsatt av ekologen och komponisten Marten Scheffer.
Metoden är egentligen enkel. I grunden en ljussatt, genomskinlig behållare fylld med vatten. Likt ett akvarium. Ibland försedd med en bakgrundsbild. Det är när färgpigmenten pytsas ner i vattnet som måleriet börjar. När färgstoffer och bläck långsamt sjunker till botten utvecklas en kedja av formhändelser. Abstrakt expressionism live. Mirakel? Inte än. Förvandlingen inträffar när hela processen videofilmas upp och ner.
Med rörelsen riktad uppät, från djupet till ytan, flyter bildförloppet rakt mot naturen. Och konsthistorien. Jag ser träd, växter och organismer i dramatisk förändring, kaskader av ånga, ljus och aska, krevader av rök och eld. Hänförande livskraft och dystopisk förstörelse. I bakgrunden ekar konstnärer som Peder Balke, Hilma af Klint och Gerhard Richter. Men också, påminner om Tone Bjordam, videokonstnären Pippilotti Rist.
Inte konstigt att Marten Scheffer i Tone Bjordams måleriinstallationer såg en konstnärlig släkting till sin egen forskning om klimatkrisens naturförändringar. Tillsammans har de deltagit i en rad klimatkonferenser och byggt en bro mellan bildkonst, vetenskap och musik.
"Jag har inte studerat naturvetenskap, men är bra på system och strukturer", svarar Tone Bjordam när jag undrar var hennes bildvärld kommer ifrån. Frän ett stenrike, en skog och en sjö får jag veta, där hon som barn samlade på mönster. En skattjakt. På släktgården upptäcktes den sällsynta mineralen solsten. Geologer från hela världen kom dit för att undersöka stenens orangeglittrande kärna.
Här på Alma Löv visas Tone Bjordams textila och skulpturala studier av lavar och kristaller. I Blå containern står hennes mikroskop, att närtitta på universum i.
I telefonen sjunger Tone Bjordam för mig, en norsk folkvisa.
Rösten stiger ur djupet, med räckvidd i klangen. "Jag tycker om att dansa också", skjuter hon in. Tone Bjordam sjunger som hennes videofilmade vattenmåleri ser ut. Det är inte lett i början att först förstå hur färginstallationerna går till. I Rokokosalens projektioner och fotografier här på Alma Löv har förtrollningen redan ägt rum. Tonsatt av ekologen och komponisten Marten Scheffer.
Metoden är egentligen enkel. I grunden en ljussatt, genomskinlig behållare fylld med vatten. Likt ett akvarium. Ibland försedd med en bakgrundsbild. Det är när färgpigmenten pytsas ner i vattnet som måleriet börjar. När färgstoffer och bläck långsamt sjunker till botten utvecklas en kedja av formhändelser. Abstrakt expressionism live. Mirakel? Inte än. Förvandlingen inträffar när hela processen videofilmas upp och ner.
Med rörelsen riktad uppät, från djupet till ytan, flyter bildförloppet rakt mot naturen. Och konsthistorien. Jag ser träd, växter och organismer i dramatisk förändring, kaskader av ånga, ljus och aska, krevader av rök och eld. Hänförande livskraft och dystopisk förstörelse. I bakgrunden ekar konstnärer som Peder Balke, Hilma af Klint och Gerhard Richter. Men också, påminner om Tone Bjordam, videokonstnären Pippilotti Rist.
Inte konstigt att Marten Scheffer i Tone Bjordams måleriinstallationer såg en konstnärlig släkting till sin egen forskning om klimatkrisens naturförändringar. Tillsammans har de deltagit i en rad klimatkonferenser och byggt en bro mellan bildkonst, vetenskap och musik.
"Jag har inte studerat naturvetenskap, men är bra på system och strukturer", svarar Tone Bjordam när jag undrar var hennes bildvärld kommer ifrån. Frän ett stenrike, en skog och en sjö får jag veta, där hon som barn samlade på mönster. En skattjakt. På släktgården upptäcktes den sällsynta mineralen solsten. Geologer från hela världen kom dit för att undersöka stenens orangeglittrande kärna.
Här på Alma Löv visas Tone Bjordams textila och skulpturala studier av lavar och kristaller. I Blå containern står hennes mikroskop, att närtitta på universum i.
An article about Tone Bjordams work, written by Rosa Rada, was published at cCHANGE on the 1st of November 2016. Read the article here:
The Transformative Role of Art
The Transformative Role of Art
Article by Megan Rowling: Scientists jam with musicians, artists to stir public passion for nature. Collaboration between the arts and science can help change the way we look at the environment - and spark debate on how to protect it, published at Thomson Reuters Fondation News, September 2017
Press release written by Marthe Walthinsen in English and Norwegian:
About what is left if you touch it.
Sunstone; an oligoclase variation of aventurine-feldspar. The stone's orange parts are surrounded by white quartz and black mica. You can see glitter that sparkles in different colours inside the stone, because of thin lamellas of bloodstone (hematite).
In Snorres Kongesaga (Heimskringla), it is most likely that a similar stone is described as a tool that the Vikings used to navigate at sea in overcast weather. And in Bamble in Telemark it was a sensation when a natural deposit of Sunstone was found in the ground, at the Bjordam farm, in 1927.
Tone Kristin Bjordam grew up on this farm. Here, amongst visiting geologists from all over Europe, she spent her childhood looking in microscopes and examining the different rocks and minerals in her grandparents gem museum, and outside, in the area's special geological deposits.
Bjordam's adolescence and the supply of concentrated, but also partly mysterious, compounds of nature and science, are at the basis for her work as an artist.
Like the Norwegian painter Peder Balke, Bjordam has become interested in nature's overwhelming impact on mankind, and thereby manufacturing her art as partially depicted and staged, and partly abstracted.
Painterly issues are at the forefront of Bjordam's artwork, such as structures, layers and translucency. But painting has in general figured more as
a reference point. Audiences have previously been presented to mainly lens-based techniques, such as photography and video.
In the exhibition Night Sky View however, the central work is a circular oil painting, depicting the Milky Way, as it appears on the northern hemisphere in October. The painting is suspended from the ceiling of the tower at Trafo in Asker, and will therefore open up an illusionistic space in the building.
Sight as the most defining sense of our times, is emphasised in Bjordam's work. The eye as a link between the emotional and the analytical. Issues related to the romantic and to the scientific, as a way to concentrate the world through the artist as a subject.
One might ask, like in ancient times, if the light comes to the eye, or if the eye throws the light on nature.
Press release, written by Marthe Walthinsen in conjunction with the exhibition opening Night Sky View at Galleri Trafo, Asker, Norway, 2008.
Sunstone; an oligoclase variation of aventurine-feldspar. The stone's orange parts are surrounded by white quartz and black mica. You can see glitter that sparkles in different colours inside the stone, because of thin lamellas of bloodstone (hematite).
In Snorres Kongesaga (Heimskringla), it is most likely that a similar stone is described as a tool that the Vikings used to navigate at sea in overcast weather. And in Bamble in Telemark it was a sensation when a natural deposit of Sunstone was found in the ground, at the Bjordam farm, in 1927.
Tone Kristin Bjordam grew up on this farm. Here, amongst visiting geologists from all over Europe, she spent her childhood looking in microscopes and examining the different rocks and minerals in her grandparents gem museum, and outside, in the area's special geological deposits.
Bjordam's adolescence and the supply of concentrated, but also partly mysterious, compounds of nature and science, are at the basis for her work as an artist.
Like the Norwegian painter Peder Balke, Bjordam has become interested in nature's overwhelming impact on mankind, and thereby manufacturing her art as partially depicted and staged, and partly abstracted.
Painterly issues are at the forefront of Bjordam's artwork, such as structures, layers and translucency. But painting has in general figured more as
a reference point. Audiences have previously been presented to mainly lens-based techniques, such as photography and video.
In the exhibition Night Sky View however, the central work is a circular oil painting, depicting the Milky Way, as it appears on the northern hemisphere in October. The painting is suspended from the ceiling of the tower at Trafo in Asker, and will therefore open up an illusionistic space in the building.
Sight as the most defining sense of our times, is emphasised in Bjordam's work. The eye as a link between the emotional and the analytical. Issues related to the romantic and to the scientific, as a way to concentrate the world through the artist as a subject.
One might ask, like in ancient times, if the light comes to the eye, or if the eye throws the light on nature.
Press release, written by Marthe Walthinsen in conjunction with the exhibition opening Night Sky View at Galleri Trafo, Asker, Norway, 2008.
Inside a Sunstone, photomicrography, Tone Bjordam, 2008
Om det som blir igjen hvis du tar på det.
Solstein; oligoklas variant av aventurinfeltspat. Steinen er omkranset av hvit kvarts og glimmer, med oransje roser. Den glitrer i ulike farger via tynne lameller med blodstein (hematitt).
I Snorres Kongesaga er trolig samme stein beskrevet som et verktøy vikingene brukte til navigasjon på havet i overskyet vær, og i Bamble i Telemark var det en stor sensasjon da solsteinen ble funnet på gården Bjordam i 1927.
På denne gården vokste Tone Kristin Bjordam opp. Her trådte hun sine barnsben blant valfartende geologer fra hele Europa, tittet i mikroskoper og betraktet alle de ulike steinene som etter hvert kom til, enten som bytte fra tilreisende geologer, eller fra tomtas helt spesielle geologiske sammensetning.
Bjordams oppvekst og tilgang på konsentrerte, men tildels mystiske sammensetninger av natur og vitenskap er utgangspunktet for hennes virke som kunstner.
I likhet med den norske maleren Peder Balke har Bjordam fattet interesse for naturens overveldende virkning på det vesle mennesket, og herunder fremstiller hun kunsten som delvis skildrende og iscenesatt, delvis abstrahert. Maleriske problemstillinger er i høyeste grad tilstede i Bjordams arbeider, så som strukturer, lag og gjennomskinnelighet, men selve malemediet har som regel kun figurert som referansepunkt. Mediene publikum tidligere har blitt presentert for, er hovedsaklig linsebaserte teknikker som foto og video.
I utstillingen Night Sky View er likevel det sentrale verket et sirkulært oljemaleri som fremstiller melkeveien slik den ser ut på den nordlige halvkule i disse dager. Maleriet monteres i Prosjektrommets tak og vil følgelig åpne et illusjonistisk rom i bygningen.
Øyet som vår tids avgjørende sans vektlegges. Øyet som bindeledd mellom det emosjonelle og analysen. Problemstillinger knyttet til det romantiske og det vitenskaplige, samt en måte å konsentrere verden gjennom kunstneren som subjekt.
Man kan spørre seg, som i elder tider, om lyset kommer til øyet, eller om øyet kaster lyset på naturen.
Pressemelding, skrevet av Marthe Walthinsen i forbindelse med utstillingsåpning på Galleri Trafo i Asker, 30 oktober 2008.
Plasma, detail, big format photography, Tone Bjordam, 2007
Catalog text written by Tommy Olsson:
It doesn't happen very often, but it happens, and when it does, it is always so surprising.
Something crosses your path and strikes far and deep into a forgotten nerve,
takes hold of the old body, so that in a nanosecond, it is back on
a balcony, in the middle of the sixties, along with grandmother, who is pointing and
telling what the stars of heaven are called. Something that
actually work on more frequencies than you can possibly handle simultaneously.
That was what happened to me the first time I was presented with this artist's work, and it also
happened the second time.
There are many ways to relate to the concept of "beauty" - I
remember one time a painter, in a confidential manner, snuffled out that beauty
really was the secret goal of his activities. In a low voice, almost
whispering, as if it was something shameful. And it is perhaps,
depending on - as I said - how one relates to it, and how one
choose to define it. When we are dealing with Tone Kristin Bjordam's work, there is
no way to rule out the fact that it is so visually
enchanting and attractive that it is totally disarming. There are
no arguments to confront it in a critical way that holds, really,
because it is a beauty with a certain substance. A beauty achieved by
running an artistic method out into perfection, through an almost
scientific attitude. (There are many who try to brag about
a "scientific attitude" of course, but here it can be justified to
use exactly those words).
It is just so convincing, that as a spectator, one is caught
off guard. Even the critical mass, the random passers-by,
who are not really interested, and like to proclaim
about what art really "means", stand with an open mouth and a glassy
stare here. What we really are dealing with, is a little piece of magic, a world that
invites you to a meditative state, of the kind that you can get
in front of an aquarium, or maybe a lava lamp. But underneath this, there
are also several layers of aesthetics. The
abstract painting lies foremost in the mix. It is so convincing, that
we are never really in any doubt that this is actually painting,
even though it has traveled further on, into another medium. But deeper down on
the bottom, we are constantly aware of the outlines of a landscape tradition,
of modernism's father and mother, and Bjordam's unpredictable
underwater visions of it. As a logical consequence of Gerhard
Richter's painterly survey over the same theme. But here it is in motion,
and the landscapes can sometimes take very dramatic and sinister forms, but never
ever repulsive.
Let's say, it is early spring in 1966, and soon it is time to go to bed,
my grandmother is standing on the balcony holding me. I'm too small to
talk properly, "nany tars" (many stars), I whisper, and fall asleep. Tone
Bjordam's inquisitive and explorative attitude leads to a form that
brings these types of wide-eyed impulses to life. But above all, it works as
a reminder that the universe does not have a given size.
Catalog Text written by Tommy Olsson in 2007
It doesn't happen very often, but it happens, and when it does, it is always so surprising.
Something crosses your path and strikes far and deep into a forgotten nerve,
takes hold of the old body, so that in a nanosecond, it is back on
a balcony, in the middle of the sixties, along with grandmother, who is pointing and
telling what the stars of heaven are called. Something that
actually work on more frequencies than you can possibly handle simultaneously.
That was what happened to me the first time I was presented with this artist's work, and it also
happened the second time.
There are many ways to relate to the concept of "beauty" - I
remember one time a painter, in a confidential manner, snuffled out that beauty
really was the secret goal of his activities. In a low voice, almost
whispering, as if it was something shameful. And it is perhaps,
depending on - as I said - how one relates to it, and how one
choose to define it. When we are dealing with Tone Kristin Bjordam's work, there is
no way to rule out the fact that it is so visually
enchanting and attractive that it is totally disarming. There are
no arguments to confront it in a critical way that holds, really,
because it is a beauty with a certain substance. A beauty achieved by
running an artistic method out into perfection, through an almost
scientific attitude. (There are many who try to brag about
a "scientific attitude" of course, but here it can be justified to
use exactly those words).
It is just so convincing, that as a spectator, one is caught
off guard. Even the critical mass, the random passers-by,
who are not really interested, and like to proclaim
about what art really "means", stand with an open mouth and a glassy
stare here. What we really are dealing with, is a little piece of magic, a world that
invites you to a meditative state, of the kind that you can get
in front of an aquarium, or maybe a lava lamp. But underneath this, there
are also several layers of aesthetics. The
abstract painting lies foremost in the mix. It is so convincing, that
we are never really in any doubt that this is actually painting,
even though it has traveled further on, into another medium. But deeper down on
the bottom, we are constantly aware of the outlines of a landscape tradition,
of modernism's father and mother, and Bjordam's unpredictable
underwater visions of it. As a logical consequence of Gerhard
Richter's painterly survey over the same theme. But here it is in motion,
and the landscapes can sometimes take very dramatic and sinister forms, but never
ever repulsive.
Let's say, it is early spring in 1966, and soon it is time to go to bed,
my grandmother is standing on the balcony holding me. I'm too small to
talk properly, "nany tars" (many stars), I whisper, and fall asleep. Tone
Bjordam's inquisitive and explorative attitude leads to a form that
brings these types of wide-eyed impulses to life. But above all, it works as
a reminder that the universe does not have a given size.
Catalog Text written by Tommy Olsson in 2007
Liquid Landscape, video, short preview, Tone Bjordam, 2005
Det er ikke ofte, men det skjer, og det er alltid like overraskende.
Noe krysser din vei som pirker langt langt inn i en bortglemt nerve,
tar tak i den gamle kroppen, til den i et nanosekund er tilbake på
en balkong, i midten av 60-tallet, sammen med mormor, som peker og
forteller hva stjernene på himmelen heter. Noe som, det har alle
forstått nå, faktisk fungerer på flere frekvenser enn man egentlig
kan håndtere samtidig. Det var det som skjedde med meg første gangen jeg
ble presentert for det her arbeidet, og det skjedde også den andre gangen.
Det finnes mange måter å forholde seg til begrepet "skjønnhet” – jeg
husker en gang en maler fortrolig snøvlet fram at det
egentlig var hans hemmelige mål med sin virksomhet. Lavt, nesten
hviskende, som om det var rent ut skammelig. Og det er det kanskje,
avhengig av – som sagt – hvordan man forholder seg til det, og hvordan man
velger å definere det. Når det handler om Tone Kristin Bjordams arbeider går det
ikke an å styre forbi det faktum at det er så visuelt
fortryllende og attraktivt at det blir totalt avvæpnende. Det fins
ingen argumenter for å konfrontere det kritisk som holder, egentlig,
for det er snakk om en skjønnhet med en viss substans. En skjønnhet som
oppnås ved å drive en kunstnerisk metode ut i perfeksjon gjennom en nærmest vitenskaplig innstilling. (Det er mange som prøver å skryte på
seg en "vitenskaplig innstilling" altså, men her kan det forsvares å
bruke akkurat de ordene).
Det er akkurat så overbevisende at man som betrakter blir helt satt ut
av spill – til og med den kritiske massen, de tilfeldig forbipasserende,
som egentlig ikke er interesserte og stadig messer
om hva kunsten "betyr", blir stående med åpen munn og glassaktig
blikk her. Vi har å gjøre med et lite stykke magi, en verden som
inviterer til en meditativ tilstand av den typen man kan få i
nærheten av et akvarium, eller kanskje en lava-lampe. Men under dette
ligger også flere lag av estetiske problemstillinger. Det
abstrakte maleriet ligger langt framme i miksen. Så til de grader at
det egentlig aldri er noen tvil om at dette faktisk er maleri,
selv om det har reist videre inn i at annet medium. Men lengst nede på
bunnen aner vi hele tiden konturene av en landskapstradisjon,
modernismens far og mor, og Bjordams uforutsigbare
undervannsvisjoner av det. Som en logisk konsekvens av Gerhard
Richters behandling av den samme tematikken, men her er det i bevegelse,
og landskapet kan til tider ta svært dramatiske og skumle former, men aldri
noensinne frastøtende.
La oss si at det er tidlig på våren 1966 og det snart er på tide å sove,
mormor står på balkongen og holder meg. Jeg er for liten til
å snakke rent. "Ange sterner" hvisker jeg, og sovner. Tone Bjordams
nysgjerrige og utforskende holdning leder til en form som vekker den
typen av storøyde impulser til liv. Men fremfor alt fungerer det som
en påminnelse om at kosmos ikke har en gitt størrelse.
Katalogtekst skrevet av Tommy Olsson i 2007
Liquid Crystal, big format photography, Tone Bjordam, 2007
To contact Tone Bjordam you can submit a message here: Contact