TITLE: Nature on culture

This project investigates how nature has overtaken culture for a very particular case. The art, created more than two hundred years ago in Rome, has obtained new and fascinating expressions due to the lichen which have grown on it in small villages in the Nordic countries. The visual expression is striking as the soft and elegant neoclassicistic reliefs is overgrown with rough forms giving a complimentary impression providing a visual counterpoint. Culture and nature are here both together but very different in expressions.

The story started long ago. In 1770 the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen born in Copenhagen, then the capital of Denmark-Norway-Iceland, with an Icelandic father. He moved to Rome in 1797 where he lived for 40 years and obtained a world-wide fame. He created sculptures to the St. Peter Basilica in Vatican, to Central Park in New York and to many European cities. In 1815 he created two reliefs “The Day” and “The Night”. Small copies of these reliefs were started to be used as decoration on gravestones in the Nordic countries around 1850. Especially in Norway and Iceland very many of these gravestones are still standing on churchyards, even in the smallest villages in the mountain valleys. Lichen has grown on these and contributed to new artworks, partial by Thorvaldsen and partial by nature.

Several hundreds of cemeteries have been visited by the photographer to find the best examples of the combination of the relief with lichen. The pictures are documentary pictures in the sense that they as accurately as possible shows what you see if you visit these graves. This is also one of the examples where black-and-white photography is not an abstraction of a colorful world. The reliefs are white, and most of the lichen are black or gray.

AUTHOR: Kai Tormod Hansen (Norway)

Kai Tormod Hansen has explored and learned photography from a number of great workshop teachers: Morten Krogvold, Ralph Gibson, Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Anders Petersen, Bruce Barnebaum, Joyce Tenneson, Connie Imboden, Eddie Soloway, Hans Jørgen Brun, Julie Grahame, Tone Elin Solholm and Torkil Færø.

Exhibitions:
2022 Pecha Kucha på Norsk NaturPhotofestival, Ski, Norway
2021 Exhibition Wergelandshaugen, Eidsvoll, Norway
2020 Purchased for permanent exhibition, Wergelandshaugen kunstsenter, Eidsvoll, Norway
2020 Participation in «The Book Club», Fotogalleriet, Oslo, Norway
2019 Skaperfestivalen, Gjøvik, Norway
2019 Exhibition Kaffka, Gjøvik, Norway
2019 Participation in exhibition Ullensaker rådhus, Jessheim, Norway
2019 Participation in exhibition 5029, Jessheim, Norway
2019 Participation in exhibition Cyan Salong, Oslo, Norway
2019 Participation in exhibition Høstustillingen in Horten, Norway
2019 Participation in exhibition Oslo Kameraklubb, Albin Up, Oslo, Norway
2019 Participation in PhotoZineMaraton, Cyan, Oslo, Norway
2018 Separate exhibition at Bærum Kunsthall, Norway
2018 Separat exhibition, Fotografiens Hus, Oslo, Norway
2018 Participation in the Nordic Village, Helsinki Photopfestival, Finland
2018 Participation in exhibition på Wegelandshaugen, Eidsvoll, Norway
2018 Participation in exhibition “Uncertain States Scandinavia” Nordic Light, Kristiansund.
2018 Participation in exhibition Preus Photomuseum, Horten, Norway
2018 Pecha Kucha på Norsk NaturPhotofestival, Ski, Norway
2018 Separatexhibition, Gullhaugen, Fåvang, Norway
2018 Participation in exhibition Oslo Kameraklubb, Albin Up, Oslo, Norway
2017 Separat exhibition, Smia Galleri, Oslo, Norway
2017 Participation in exhibition at “Uncertain States Scandinavia” Cyan Galleri, Oslo, Norway
2016 Participation in exhibition at Norsk NaturFotofestival, Ski, Norway
2016 Participation in exhibition Cyan Galleri, Oslo, Norway
2015 Participation in exhibition Preus Photomuseum, Horten, Norway
2015 Participation in exhibition Cyan Galleri, Oslo, Norway

Kai Tormod Hansen are focusing on giving a new and surprising view on the world that surrounds us, typically small things. He has been working with botanical pictures but are also working on capturing the interplay between culture and nature.