Song of Consolation

Borghild Rudjord Unneland 
I'm a little concerned that we often become slightly blind to what is completely ordinary – what we surround ourselves with on a daily basis. We become so used to seeing it, that we don't even see it anymore. And for me, one of the most important tasks of art is to kind of wake us up a little from our slumber, and to arouse attention. 
  
For me, art is very much tied to questions about whether this is art. Can this be art? Can that bucket with that squeegee, with that cloth, can it be an art experience? 
I'm trying to put something at stake. I'm trying to awaken something in the viewer. And I'm trying to say something about: something very everyday, and universal at the same time. 
 
I'm very keen that there's no right or wrong when you look at my work. I'm not really interested in telling my story. But… I'm interested in the things we surround ourselves with, and how they carry stories with them, because they are so closely tied to our lives.  
 
Then I'm curious about what the viewer sees – what is brought to life in the viewer. 
We relate to stories. We relate to narratives. And such completely everyday objects that we have interacted with throughout a day or throughout a life. They almost have a kind of capsule of narratives in them that I want to bring to life. I am more interested in an audience trusting their own associations. 
  
I am also very interested in balancing, and in this particular work I do it very physically. 
But it is also something that I work very actively with when I develop a work, because I try to balance perhaps somewhat paradoxical associations, in a way. Or... I’m kind of interested in the sad versus the funny, the ugly versus the beautiful, the logical versus the illogical. So, I work on many levels and with many materials at the same time and try to create a balance or an imbalance between such opposites.  
 
And then I became intrigued in what movement does to us. That when we look at something that moves, it almost seems like you stop a little. 
In some way, with very slow movement especially, it's almost like there's a little pulse there. 
And perhaps in contrast to society in general, I think there is so much that goes so very fast. So, what can we do to slow down a little, or what can we do to feel that we are starting to slow down a little? Feel that we are becoming still, in some way…  
 
So… it's kind of... in a way… it's like a kind of meditation. Because, it goes so very, very, very slowly. And maybe that's why I've also given the work that title "Trøstesang". It's almost like a little lullaby, or something that's supposed to calm you down a little, in a way…