Stavanger, Norway
The generosity of forests towards humankind is unmatched. They give us raw materials for building and generating energy, food to gather and eat, space for leisure and dreaming. We owe them everything. Sveinung Nygaard, who played in the Eskelandskogen as a child, has discovered that the forest can also be an art studio and even a gallery. For “Morfar,” he bends a living tree to serve as the upper bar of a loom then constructs the rest from sticks. On it he weaves a simple but colorful textile out of secondhand fabric strips. “Samspill” was drawn on a large white sheet by dragging a felt football that had been dipped in motor oil; the resulting black and yellow stains recall the abstract expressionism of Franz Kline but with an eco-consciousness. In these and other works, Nygaard uses the forest as a place of making but also, importantly, display. Unlike in a conventional gallery, white-walled, silent and still, here the walls are trees, the ceiling sky, the ground green foliage or white snow, the sounds birdsong and wind. Oh, and the viewers! One can only imagine what the forest’s creatures think.
—Lori Waxman, March 18, 2:34 PM