Artist talk med Thora Dolven Balke

Thora Dolven Balke lives and works between Oslo, Norway and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A line through Dolven Balke’s work could be how humans act in precarious situations, and how those actions are inscribed on their surroundings. She works in the studio next to a more documentary approach with sound, film and photography - with materials made to support or augment the body directly via technology, or metaphorically as sculptural counterparts or aids to the photographs, films and sound works. Dolven Balke draws on language we use to describe experiences that seem impossible, although they are perhaps the most real of all: events related to time, our own vulnerability and attachments, as persons and as part of a society. Her work catalogues the surfaces and objects that accommodate, carry, give support, nurture and soften the body in intimate as well as institutional settings. The design, colours, patterns and surfaces in spaces that are meant to keep us upright, functioning and clean. She uses found materials in photographic collages and video sculptures; like anti-slip mats, water repellent paper, silicone and latex sheets, exam table bench paper, towels and memory foam. Dolven Balke often references water and flow, as an image of the absurd attempts to tidy, dry up, and control the massive leakage that accompanies life. Recent exhibitions are Moon in your Mouth (2023); Rough Seas, Melk (2021); False Spring, Lydgalleriet (2020); You’re Dead, K4 (2020) and FLOW, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro and Melk (2019).

Thora Dolven Balke er utdannet på Fata Morgana Fotokunstskole i København; Kunsthøskolen i Bergen avd. Fotografi; Kunsthøskolen i Oslo avd. Kunstakademiet og Mountain School of Art in Los Angeles. Ved siden av sitt virke som billedkunstner og kurator har Dolven Balke grunnlagt og drevet det kunstnerstyrte galleriet REKORD (2006-2010) med Eirin Støen og Ingvild Langgård. I 2011 kuraterte hun Lofoten Internasjonale Kunstfestival LIAF sammen med Linn Pedersen. Siden 2021 driver hun Agder Kunstakademi, en fulltids kunstutdanning i Agder Fengsel, avd. Froland sammen med co-kurator Kristine Jærn Pilgaard og kunstnere Dag Erik Elgin, Hege Nyborg og Sverre Gullesen med avgangsutstilling på Kunstnernes Hus i 2023.

‍

Tittel på verket: FLOW series, 2021 / silikon, original polaroid / 40 x 35 x 2 cm