With inspiration from history such as minimalism and constructivism, a relationship with the city in constant change and a desire to express the small difference in the daily that makes every day still not equal, the drawings have an expression of something non-figurative and strictly abstract. Motifs that are balanced and fine-tuned, while at the same time accommodating everything from silence to excitement and intensity. The composition of the motif combined with the distinctive dotting technique makes the expression concentrated, but not ironed and polished.
The exhibition in Tegnerforbundet will consist of small and medium-sized drawings made with pen on ink paper behind glass and frame. They are drawn in black ink and consist only of dots. This is painstaking and time-consuming work and a technique Mathisen has developed and used for ten years. There is a long process of ideas and sketches behind each drawing with numbers and calculations on graph paper and tracing paper, often with the often with the use of the Fibonacci series and the golden ratio. I want to avoid figures on the background and work with the entire paper surface based on the idea of one drawing, one sheet, one sheet, a whole.
The dotting technique gives the drawings a light, an intimacy and a softness in what the paper sees through the dotted fields that are never completely clogged with felt-tip pens; so paper is an important part of the image. The dotted surfaces are never completely smooth, but give a movement and restlessness and mean that even the closed, calculated motifs will come to life and play in the surface. Dotting can also give a textural effect that creates the experience of space and air.
Sara Mathisen (b. 1978) is a graduate of AHO, Oslo School of Architecture, Strykejernet art school, and has been a private student with Professor Jan Valentin Sæther. She has previously had solo exhibitions at e.g. Risør Art Association and Dortmund Bodega, and participated in several group exhibitions.
