- I'm not sure if time goes fast or slow, or if it stops. But I know that the thought of it disappears.
Tina Jonsbu carries out her work according to a system and a set of rules she decides in advance. They are simple and repetitive actions within a time period or a physical boundary such as a sheet or a wall. It is slow work.
She questions whether the presence in the process is open and attentive to the surroundings, or whether it is introverted and exclusionary. Perhaps it alternates throughout the work process. Is absence in something a prerequisite for presence in something else?
In the exhibition in Tegnerforbundet Jonsbu shows embroidery on paper.
BLÅMEJSE – I embroider random stitches on paper. Up, down, up, down, up. I embroider small stitches and try to find a rhythm. The needle (Prym, embroidery crewel, no. 3) pierces the paper, and the thread scrapes against the edge of the hole. Up, down, up. The needle breaks down the paper. The paper softens, and I embroider without a sound. The thread holds the paper together. I cut the paper from a sheet of Inbe Thin White (44 g, 97 x 64 cm). I cut the paper to 14.8 x 11.2 cm. I hold it in my hands and embroider within the radius of my body. It doesn't take up much space, and sometimes I sit with others. I can talk when I embroider. The embroidery closes, becomes harder. I feel my way with the needle. I feel my way to find a point and stick the needle through. The threads are leftovers from "Vægbilde: Blåmejse 3" (12-254, mlf. 25 x 33 cm, Eva Rosenstand), and I embroider with simple thread. I use up one color at a time and follow the order on the thread card. I started with "dark green". "White" was used. I embroider for 13 days before the thread runs out. I embroider on the bus, at the airport, in the plane, in the car, in the living room, on the veranda, in the cabin. But not on the beach. After 13 days, the embroidery measures 12.3 x 9.3 cm. The format twists. I don't know what I expected. A blue tit pair nested in our bird box. The embroidery resembles their plumage. They were old.
Tina Jonsbu (b. 1968) is a visual artist living in Oslo. She is, among other things, educated at The Art Academy in Bergen. She is currently a research fellow at The Art Academy in Oslo, Department of Art and Craft. Jonsbu has previously had solo exhibitions in, among other places, Tegnerforbundet and Kunstnerforbundet, and in 2013 she was nominated for The Lorck Schive Art Prize and exhibited at Trondheim Art Museum. The exhibition is supported by Program for kunstnerisk utviklingsarbeid.
