Artist Statement
Håkon Røisland is ideologically inspired by the early surrealist movement, with its enigmatic themes, enigmatic places and its philosophy of automatism. He work with contradictions related to ideologies and norms, and in this he find the early surrealists’ criticism of imperialism and cultural fetishism as it is brought up to date in the current social debate, values and mind set. Together with focus on social contradictions Håkon Røisland challenge taboos related to our way of life, our faith and our roles. Here he seeks out to visualize the spaces that are formed as inner thoughts and ideologies meet the outer world. Each of his photographs contains dualisms, always showing a game between concrete reality and abstract thought.
Process Statement
Håkon Røisland work with Polaroid photography, where he always combine elements beyond his control together with the motifs he have consciously chosen. The surroundings he chooses for his photography have always a meaning for what he express, and their contributions are not only on an ideological level, but on a concrete one as well. By pressing the negatives onto the photographed subject before the film emulsion dries, a chemical process forms by particles from the photographed, blending with and affecting the negatives’ emulsion.
Håkon Røisland was born in Oslo in 1965. All his adult life he felt himself pulled between two positions – between engagement in society and art. Up until the late 1990s’ his involvement with society had tended to win this battle, but this would prove to change. During the Yugoslavian war and other conflicted areas in the early 90s’ he began working with refugees and victims of war. This work resulted in the losing trust in the authorities’ actions. Håkon Røisland left the established society, but after some years on the “edge”, he started to form his experiences as artistic expressions. He soon felt the need to gain more knowledge on both a procedural level and within philosophy of art. This search for knowledge resulted in a decade of art studies. After finishing his Master degree in 2013, he has showed his artworks in European and American galleries.
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