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Artist of the Month : Mari Røysamb

Oct 1, 2019

Mari Røysamb (1964) works with drawing, photography and sculpture, and has her education from the Oslo Academy of Architecture and the Oslo Academy of Fine Arts. Røysamb's interdisciplinary background is reflected in her artistry where space plays an important role, regardless of whether she works with monumental architectural objects or with two-dimensional expressions such as drawing. In the drawings, Røysamb likes to combine his own photographs of rooms and different room situations with delicate pencil drawings. At first glance, it is difficult to distinguish between what is photography and what is drawing. What is striking is the illusion of space with a prominent poetic/philosophical approach. Mari Røysamb lives and works in Oslo. More information about Mari Røysamb here .

TF: Mari, can you tell us a little about your artistic work?  

MR: I do drawing, photography and sculpture. Various objects and materials are used to optimize ideas. Sometimes cast iron or bronze is needed, other times crochet or pencil drawing is better. Juxtapositions and dialogue between drawings and sculptures are actively used to reinforce or twist meaning. I work a lot on assignments in public spaces. It is inspiring to work with place and situation, in collaboration and with specialized professionals in workshops. A sharpening part of the artistic work also takes place through teaching at Einar Granum and at AHO.

 

TF: How do you use drawing in your work? Tell us a little about your work process.

MR: Drawing is as naturally present as cooking, dressing, reading. It is a task to understand idea, discover form, construction, to explain to myself and others. Since drawing is so quick to handle, it works like a parallel language. In all work processes, I draw sketches to develop the ideas. On the side, I have independent drawing projects going on. Then I usually have a concrete idea and know where I'm going. I draw things that I physically have in the room or on the work table. In the series "At the same time" I also draw from photos, it can be an airplane staircase, the moon, birds or something else. "Simultaneously" - the work always develops along the way, I have to plan the photographic background, but don't know what happens when I start with the drawing layer.

 

TF: What inspires you? Do you work from a theme?

MR: I often look for metaphors for states. Film, novels and science are good material for discovering and clarifying ideas. I have always been very interested in space, in space fiction, films such as Star Wars, Solaris, Gravity etc. Epic stories about space, time and existence. I am also almost addicted to humor and funny dialogues. In collaborative projects with Eli K. Kjønsberg, the mixture of these things arises completely by itself.

 

TF: What are you currently working on?

MR: A sculpture of a table with everyday events and time displacement has just been completed. It originates in the photo-drawings "Samtidig". A massive stone table and stone stools represent a long time, and on the table are objects of momentary events cast in bronze. It is installed at the Kolbotn care centre.

 

TF: What does drawing mean for you / your work?

MR: The drawing is research and also a proposal to be able to see in a different way. I am concerned with versions and shifts in thought space. Drawing can be both naturalistic realism and fiction. Everything is possible to mix, and in a fabulous way gives easy access to the possible impossible, at the same time. Realism, idea and thought can lie in the same layer.

 

TF: Tell us a little about your work in Tegnerforbundet's sales department!

MR: It's a pencil drawing on a photo print. Two works in the series "Samtidig", which I have been working with since 2010. I take pictures of familiar situations, and draw shadows of things outside the format, reflections and imagined possibilities. The series examines the simultaneity in the experience of the near and the other. The photograph documents one reality. The drawing in the photo shows another layer. In some previous pictures I have also sewn in the sheet. It punctures the fiction and the layers in a weird way.

 

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Available works by Mari Røysamb in the online store here .