Marit Silsand
(She/her)
Address: Bjørka verksted for kamerabasert kunst , Schweigaardsgate 34D, 0191 Oslo
The studio is open Saturday 27 April from 12-17
Marit Silsand is a visual artist with education from Gerrit Rietveld Academie, San Francisco Art Institute and Fatamorgana Photography School in Copenhagen. She recently graduated from VEA in the subject “Experimental expressions with plant materials”. Silsand is a member of The Association of Norwegian Visual Artists (NBK) and The Association of Visual Artists Oslo (BO). She reflects on identity, nationality/ethnicity, role playing and interaction between people. She works alternately with photography, installation and relational workshops, and often uses portraits, plant-based materials and textiles as part of her expression.
Photography, sculpture, plant materials
Thai Fruit Carving Hybrid project, Marit Silsand, fruit sculpture, watermelon 6 kg, 2023, Kunstnernes Hus the National Art Exhibition, photographer Jannik Abel
Thai Fruit Carving Hybrid project, Marit Silsand, fruit on round table 230 cm in diameter, 2023, Kunstnernes Hus the National Art Exhibition, photographer Jannik Abel
Thai Fruit Carving Hybrid project, photograph print 50x70cm, 2022
In my studio
You will see photography and the first screening of the film documentation from the collaboration with Dialogen ved Sletteløkka Grendehus of Silsand’s performative work “Thai Fruit Carving Hybrid” – a participant-based work where a group of ten people together with the artist create hybrid fruit sculptures. Through dialogue and with a focus on the process being both practical and social. The participants are recruited from a diversity perspective with different social and cultural backgrounds, religion, gender identity, nationality, age and different functional variations. In the last phase of the work, the artist is working on transforming the work table into a still life with fruit sculptures as part of the exhibition.
Besides Dialogen, Sletteløkka Grendehus, the work was previously shown at The Autumn Exhibition at Kunstnernes Hus in 2023 and Open Out in Tromsø in 2022.
Background to the work:
Fruit carving is a central part of Thai cultural heritage. Over the centuries it has been a respected art and craft form that requires precision and immersion. Marit Silsand grew up in a home with both Norwegian and Thai traditions. She has a Thai mother who immigrated to Norway in the 1970s, and at that time Thai fruits were not as available as they are today. When Silsand’s mother and her circle of friends had to decorate the dinner table or prepare religious rituals, they combined Norwegian fruits and vegetables with what they rarely got hold of from Thailand. Thus, the traditional Thai art of fruit carving was challenged with a new aesthetic twist during Silsand’s upbringing. The work combines a traditional craft and workshop-based participatory contemporary art.
Planned projects and exhibitions
August 2024 Performance with plant materials, Elefantteateret, Stavanger
CV
Education:
2020–22 VEA Norways green vocational school – Experimental expressions with plant materials
2006–10 Gerrit Rietveld Academie i Amsterdam, Bachelor of Fine Art
2008 San Francisco Art Institute (Film and performance department)
2003–04 Fatamorgana Photography School in Copenhagen
2003 Assistant to art photographer Herdis Maria Siegert
2002 Photography School in Århus
, Denmark
1999–00 Vrå Høyskole, photo department, Danmark
Member of The Association of Norwegian Visual Artists (NBK) and The Association of Visual Artists Oslo (BO)
Selected group exhibitions:
2023 The Autumn Exhibition, Kunstnernes Hus
2023 Sørlandsutstillingen, Arendal Art Association, Fogdegaarden Art Association, Søgne Gamle Prestegård
2022 Sørlandsutstillingen / Larvik Kulturhus / Arendal Art Association / Skien Art Association
2020 Vestlandsutstillingen curated by Elise By Olsen / Jungenstilsenteret & Kube, Ålesund / Sogn og Fjordane Art Museum, Førde / Haugesund Biledgalleri / Kunsthall Stavanger / Kunsthuset Kabuso, Øyesten/ Kunstgarasjen, Bergen
2018 Østlandsutstillingen, Vestfossen Art Laboratory
2016 Østlandsutstillingen, Identität von Mensch und Ort / Identity: man and place, Landesbibliothek in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
2015 Østlandsutstillingen, Identität von Mensch und Ort / Identity: man and place, Drawing Association, Oslo
2013 Østlandsutstillingen, Akershus Art Center / Vestfold Art Center
2006 Vestlandsutstillingen, Haugesund Picture Gallery and Hordaland Art Centre
Solo exhibitions:
2023 Dialogen, Thai Fruit Carving Hybrid, Sletteløkka Grendehus, Oslo
2021 Gallery 7×7/Vestfold Art Centre, Sagabyen 1150 years, Tønsberg
2021 University of Southeast Norway: Campus Notodden, Forskergruppen Artistic development work. Exhibition during the Research Days.
2020 Studio K, Follow the Path into Nature, Kvernaland
2020 Galleri Backer, Instablikket, University of Southeast Norway
2018 Fossen Rom & Forlag, Follow the Lines, Oslo
2014 – 2015 Oslo City Council for Cultural Affairs, Temporary Art Projects, three exhibitions in empty business premises in Oslo
2013 Gallery Blink, Without Authorities for Approx. 90 Minutes, Trondheim2012 Sound of Mu, Without Authorities for Approx. 90 Minutes, Oslo
2012 Gamle Ormelet – Tjøme Art and Culture Centre, Frihet, Tjøme
2012 Cyan Photo Gallery, Without Authorities for Approx. 90 Minutes, Oslo