Mønster, an artbased project where working with visual collage compositions is seen as a relational / therapeutic tool 2015 - still ongoing.
Hands meet in the work of creating a visual composition using shapes cut out of felt.
Kunst for Valentinlyst forsterket skjermet enhet, Trondheim, 2017 - 2019.
MØNSTER
Visual composition made with different shapes in cut out felt
As an artist developing art- based projects involving other people in the process , I believe you have to meet others with a listening attitude. That means, you have to open up towards the other so that the other person feels safe and free to share life stories, opinions and fantasies.
To make this possible, I found it important not to push the persons involved, into an impersonal activity. My goal was to create a moment of personal engagement, a sense of mastery and preferably also joy. I wanted to focus on something that could happen in the present, something that was open - ended, something that the individual could shape according to their own preferences.
Mønster can be done alone, or by two and two. I have also developed a sideproject out of Mønster called Kompasset mellom oss ( The compass between us) that is a little bit different, and can be done as a bigger group. More on this in a later post.
Different shapes in cut out felt invites you to compose different colors and shapes together, and to give these compositions their own content and meaning. For some, the compositions are layers upon layers of different personal stories, for others they are experiments with visual abstract forms.
Prior to the meetings with the Mønster project, I prepare the material we will meet over.
When I cut the felt shapes, I think about the people I will meet. Sometimes I know them a little bit, and know how they prefer to compose. Other times not.
In my preparation I may have ideas about what they want to create, yet everything is open and each meeting is unique.
Mønster developed gradually. From 2014 - 15 through art- based meetings with elderly living in homes for people with dementia, in Levanger kommune in Norway. Mønster was then a research project financed by the then newly established Nasjonalt kompetansesenter for helse, kultur og omsorg. The commission by the center was to develop a project activating people with dementia based on my background as a visual artist.
Lately I have been having workshops based on Mønster with health care takers and pedagogues. Some of these will bring Mønster into their institutions, introducing it as an activity for the people there.
Although Mønster was developed as an art-based project that can be used as art therapy I do not think that that is the spare potential for this project, and I am eager to try out Mønster in still different situations and variations.
Documentation of works made in different institutions, of healthcare persons and pedagogues through the years.
Documentation from meetings over Mønster. Mønster in the making
Post still in progress..Will show more documentation, and a link to a guide (Nasjonalt kompetansesenter for helse, kultur og omsorg v. Universitet Nord) to how to integrate Mønster as an art-based practice specifically for institutions.