I n g r i d F o r f a n g
Ingrid Forfang was born in Oslo, Norway 1971.
She was brought up on a chicken farm, far from art museums and culture education. 4000 chickens kept quiet while she was singing and playing the trumpet loudly. The kip-audiens inspired her to do her first art installation at Pictura Art Museum in Sweden -98. Forfang covered the floor with empty withe and brown eggshells that people had to walk on to be able to see the paintings on the walls.
Between
the egg and the shell there is a thin membran. Forfang got inspired and
wanted to use them in her paintings, but they were to fragile and bad
smelling so she chose to use very thin paper instead and glued it on
the canvases as a new layer.
During
the years Forfang continued to work with different layers/dimensions in
her paintings and are still working with this in mind. She uses a lot
of different materials to achive the results she is searching for.
Another important source of inspiration is the photographic feeling. Some of Forfangs works are photos, but most of her works are oil paintings, painted in the traditional way, inspired of her own taken snapshots.
The
human being, especially women, is almost always represented in Forfangs
world of art. Portraits, children playing in unknown landscapes, strong
inspiring women, dancing legs or holding hands. Every painting tells a
story. Some clear and obvious, others unclear and mysterious.
Ingrid Forfang is now living in Orihuela Costa in Spain where she found a great studio just under her new home. Spain is her fifth home country after Sweden, France, Belgium and Norway.
Below you will find a text in Norwegian, written by Ahnikee Østreng, about Forfangs works. Østreng was an art historian who dedicated her life to the art. She also was Forfangs very best friend. Forfang has painted several paintings where she was the model and now and then she still paint her when the missing is to heavy. Ahnikee Østreng died in 2013. She will always be remembered and loved.
written by Ahnikee Østreng
Om Forfangs bilder"(...) the thing about painting is its double operation. Painting has the potential to oscillate between its materiality and its capacity to evoke an illusion of something in the world or in the imagination," Alison Rowley and Griselda Pollock.
Det er i denne tvetydige virkeligheten man finner Ingrid Forfangs (f.1971) arbeider. Maleriene beveger seg mellom det virkelige og det imaginære. Mellom det abstrakte, ekspressive og det figurative. Forfang er en historieforteller. Hennes private snapshots utgjør en beholder fra hvor hun henter sin billedverden. Deretter omformes fotografiene til maleriske avtrykk på lerretet. Med utgangspunkt i sine erfaringer fletter hun inn referanser fra populærkulturen, drømmer, familieliv og bylandsskap, men til tross for det personlige grepet er motivene universelle og allmenngyldige, - man kjenner seg igjen. Som Rowley og Pollock skriver, skaper maleriet en bevisstgjøring.2
Forfang slo igjennom som kunster på slutten av 90-tallet, en tid hvor flere kunstnere eksperimenterte med grenseoppgangen mellom fotografi og maleri. Verkenes fotografiske gjengivelser av mennesket iblandet ekspressive malerstrøk problematiserer fotografiet og maleriet som medium. Gjennom den tidkrevende malerprosessen blir "fotografiets øyeblikk" omformet til noe evig, men samtidig er gjengivelsen av motivet (som Forfang har brukt som forelegg) like tilstedeværende som maleriets formale egenskaper. Arbeidet blir dermed en dialektisk prosess mellom fotografi og maleri.
Forfang søker hele tiden nye måter å utfordre maleriet, ikke bare gjennom å teste ut nye teknikker, men også gjennom refleksjon omkring persepsjon av virkeligheten og gjennom valg av motiv. De gjentagende fremstillingene av menneskefiguren viser at hun går ned i materien lik en forsker. Flere av motivene foredles gjennom minner av selvopplevde ting, og som historieforteller er mulighetene grenseløse.Skrevet av