I: what are you doing?
M: taking a picture
I: why?
M: so that I can look straight at it without it seeing that I am looking
I: is it hand made?
M: feel
I: it’s a strange one, this
M: isn’t it?
I: a stone
M: don’t put it there
I: why not?
M: pull it a bit to the right
I: hmm
M: like this?
I: yes, and cut that bit off
Stramrud works primarily with photography. By photographing ordinary things that surround her the images explore the harmony between objects that exist in our everyday lives. The relations caused by and within them turn our minds towards the gesture of seeing and thinking. The compositions reveal each of the objects potential as study-object, architecture, landscape or fantasy, while at the same time maintaining a harmonic balance in relation to them.
-Excerpt from the text I M OH ABOUT THINGS by Ingrid Furre written for the exhibition catalogue, translated from Norwegian by Anne Szefer Karlsen and re-published by Hordaland Art Centre and Performa as I M OH ABOUT THINGS in the Transmitter Show – Words At a Distance, 2013.
The exhibition is kindly supported by Norgesgruppen, Norsk Kulturråd, Vederlagsfondet and the Municipality of Bergen.
b. 1984
Marthe Elise Stramrud (b. 1984 Kristiansand, Norway) received her BFA from Bergen National Academy of Arts in 2011. In 2012 she was awarded with the debutant prize at the annual exhibition Høstutstillingen in Oslo. As a result she is – in co-production with the Norwegian Association of Art Societies – showing her first solo exhibition in Kunsthall Stavanger. The show was first exhibited in Kristiansand Kunsthall and will after Stavanger be on display at Voss Kunstlag, Svolvær Kunstforening and Levanger Kunstforening. Her recent exhibitions include group shows at OSL Contemporary, Oslo (2013) Percival Space, Oslo (2013, Sadie Halie Projects, New York (2013), VOLT, Bergen, (2013) and Podium, Oslo (2013). Stramrud will in 2014 present solo exhibitions at Fotogalleriet, (Oslo) MELK (Oslo) and Tag Team (Bergen).
