Inger Lena Gaasemyr has been a coordinator for the Provincialists, working with the artists on shaping the exhibitions and seminars, working with texts, catalogue and critique. Gaasemyr has now been invited to join the artist group with her project GRAKNITTI, presented below.

 

GRAKNITTI – installation at Art 44/46 Chicago 2006

 

Artist Statement

I am interested in how people interact and communicate in public spaces. By decorating the urban landscape with knitted materials (new and reused) I want to explore hidden boundaries between people. Knitted materials are used for several purposes, (1) as a connotation to the old crafts traditions, heritage, and nostalgia, and (2) to highlight the patterns themselves; how they are made, their origin, and how they can make new connections/interaction between people in this era of rapid communication, (3) as an interactive real-time experience and social context, and (4) a practice-over-product statement and a living strategy of slow activism.

GRAKNITTI

GRAKNITTI is a site-specific art project exploring folkloristic and ethnographical patterns in the urban landscape. Through visual signs GRAKNITTI will introduce new meanings of public and private space that open up for interactions among people.The goals for the project are to: (1) focus on public spaces in the urban landscape that are increasingly becoming privatized and commercialized, and (2) stimulate social exchange among people and encourage people to “tag” the urban landscape with knitted signs, thus rendering the urban landscape more personal and human.

The name GRAKNITTI comes from Grafitti and knitting.

In the fall of 2006, I gave a lecture about art in public spaces at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago as well as a knitting workshop where I introduced the Graknitti art project.

INSPIRATION

Liv Reidun Brakstad: KNIT IT performance art project http://www.brakstad.net/sider/knitit.htm

Kari Steihaug
http://www.karisteihaug.no/

Joseph Beuys: “social sculpture”
Nicolas Bourriaud: “relational aesthetics”
Jane Jacobs: “Life and Death of Great American Cities (1961)
Kevin Lynch: “”The Image of the City” (1960)

BIO

Special advisor in cultural heritage and Museum at the department of cultural affairs at Hordaland County Council in Norway (2007-).

Art historian (focus on architecture and urban planning) and independent curator and writer (2002-).

Cand. philol. degree in the humanities (2002), University of Bergen, Norway.

Other coursework: psychology, cultural policy, culture preservation, folk culture, mass/popular culture, urban planning, photography, historical gardening and preservation.

Exhibitions

Architreasures, Art 44/46, Kopavogur Art Museum Iceland, The Faroe Island Art Museum, Kunstlaget Njardarlog at Aarbakka Handelsstad, Select Media 04, Version05/06, BIT Teatergarasjen, Bergen Norway. Aarbakka Handelsstad, Tysnes Norway. Aarstad culture office, Bergen, Norway. Bergen international culture center, Bergen, Norway.

Awards

Scholarship at the Norwegian institute in Rome, Italy. The Norwegian Housing Bank Grant, The Norwegian Industrial Workers Museum Grant, The Norwegian general consulate in New York, Auto 23 Grant, Bergen Norway. Norway-America Association and American Scandinavian Foundation Professional Development Award, Americans for the Arts Public Art Network 2007 Year Review (selected by art historian Miwon Kwon).

GRAKNITTI installation in Logan Square Chicago 2006