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The
Artist |
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Born
in 1971, I grew up in a very small mountain village in western
Norway. Living this remote and in a particularly harsh climate
left me in admiration and respect for the tremendous forces
of nature.
It also generated a strong desire
to travel, meet people from other cultures and see other parts
of the world. At the age of 15, I came down from the mountains.
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I
discovered my passion for clay and ceramics a few years
later, in New Zealand. Peter Lange, my first teacher,
also introduced me to woodfiring.
Firing my pots with wood got essential
for me at an early stage, and after a year-long course in Auckland
I went to the centre of France to learn more about the
art of woodfire.
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I
spent a year and a half in La Borne, a village
well known for its variety of woodkilns and long traditions
of woodfired stoneware.
Getting experienced in the techniques
of woodkiln construction, I got invited to construct an anagama
kiln in Brazil.
Fascinated by the knowledge about woodfiring and
throwing in the region I went back to the centre of France,
this
time to Saint-Amand en Puisaye.
This
village has records of potters activity dating back to the
11th century.
I spent three years there, learning the specialized techniques
for throwing big pots and firing the enormous ancient woodkilns.
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Teaching
at the French National Centre of Ceramics and working
for the preservation and transmission of the local tradition
and skill at ASPPP became an important task for me in this
period.
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After many years of living abroad
I have set up a studio and built a kiln in Voss, Norway,
not far from my birth village. |
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My
elemental approach to ceramics surely has its background in
me growing up close to nature, and I get boundless inspiration
and energy from my surroundings, mountains, lakes and forests.
With many international contacts
I continue my travels, and I have punctual projects abroad,
but I work and fire on a regular basis in Voss, and hope
to make an interesting contribution to norwegian ceramics. |
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