ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Site-specific, sculptural installations in paper and paper clay
The exhibition The Sound of Paper Breaking #2 is a comprehensive installation that extends from the artist's earlier series Paper Drawings, where she challenged the concept of drawing by drawing with paper instead of on it. Roland has always been fascinated by illusions in traditional drawing, and in The Sound of Paper Breaking, she continues to experiment with the inherent properties of paper. Curious about how paper would interact with paper clay, she has created sculptures where clay is shaped through paper impressions and then painted in the color of the paper. In the process of creating new illusions, the artist has worked with materials that contrast yet are related. The result is objects that look like paper but are, in reality, made of cold and hard materials. The exhibition visually questions what is real while challenging how we define techniques like drawing, ceramics, and sculpture.
"Everything I do in my artistic practice is based on what I know about drawing." — Marit Roland
Roland is concerned with the ephemeral and changeable, which is especially emphasized in this exhibition through the choice of colors and the treatment of paper. She has chosen to work with light beige and signal yellow. The former symbolizes Roland’s own skin—smooth and taut in some places, wrinkled and sagging in others; strong and vulnerable at the same time. The signal yellow may evoke associations with the kind of highlighter used to emphasize important sentences in a text, drawing our eyes to look more closely. In addition to paper and paper clay, rope plays an important role, both as a "supporter" and as a visual contributor. Rather than hiding or downplaying the function of the rope in the exhibition, the artist has chosen a fluorescent green color to highlight the structure that holds everything in place.
"Moving from very strict rules in creating my installations, I’ve developed a need to be in a genuine process where I don’t know where I’ll end up. I allow myself to focus on the process, not the final result." — Marit Roland
Biography
Marit Roland (b. 1981, Kristiansand) holds a master's degree from the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, NTNU (2012), and has been active on both the national and international art scenes since graduating. Roland has had solo exhibitions at institutions like Wanås Art Hall (Sweden), Viborg Art Hall (Denmark), Buskerud Art Center, Telemark Art Museum, Akershus Art Center, Kristiansand Art Hall, and Museo D'Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce in Genoa (Italy). Additionally, she has participated in numerous group exhibitions at venues such as Sørlandet Art Museum, the Autumn Exhibition, and the Norwegian Sculpture Biennale.
Since 2012, Roland has received scholarships and awards from institutions like Sparebanken Sør Artist Prize, the Norwegian Arts Council, the Norwegian Visual Artists Association (NBK), and the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA).