Pine from local saw mill, Norske Skog Union archive material (images, press), photo from reading room at the National Archive, custom made protocols. Size varies.
Anna Ihle bases her works in the exhibition on Skien’s history, with a specific focus on the paper industry, and the workers who were employed there. Skien is known for its paper industry, which as well as simply a workplace must have been an integral part of the community for a long time. Developments resulted in the permanent closure of the industry in 2006.
With this as a backdrop, the artist shows a fictional place. The starting point is a photograph from an actual work place in the paper industry from the 50’s. By showing photographs and untreated woodblocks in combination with tressel tables, lamps and ledgers, the work place setting raises questions about topics such as working hours and work morale. This project is part of a larger piece of research about work and the worker, in which the artist also draws on her own work situation as an artist. This presentation can be said to constitute the first part of the artist’s Skien’s Council artist’s residency of 2015.
Thanks to Auensens Lamper, Skien.
Documentation by Anna Ihle, top photo by Aleksi Wildhagen.
Anna Ihle 