'Forventningen'

No wonder people return again and again to Blaafarveværket. They regularly refresh their exhibitions and artists-in-residence. The large area ensures that you can't quite cover everything in one day. Blaafarveværket consists of several buildings that's like, 7.5km between each one. Lingered at Norwegian artist Elisabeth Bj. Werp's installations themed 'Forventningen'. The Expected. Or perhaps Expectations. She used mediums of paint, sound and film to communicate her strong ties to the past, to the classics within a contemporary context.

A few installations were set up in a refurbished barn, and the ground floor entrance was raised. We looked down to the rooms where I was utterly fascinated by each object. Unclothed baby dolls, crucifixes, portraits, books, mirror shards, stuffed birds. All seemed right out of a horror film. Aptly, the film room held scenes from Swedish director Ingmar Bergman's iconic 'The Seventh Seal', as well as shots of Oslo Prison, Oslo domkirke and the old sewer halls under Akershus Fortress. Crusades, death, Death personified, Book of Revelation, The Black Plague. Woah. More than goth. Dark stuff.

Elisabeth Werp's paintings that lined the installations are titled something like 'Jeg venter på deg' ('I'm waiting for you'), 'Ekko fra klokken som tikker et anent sted' ('Echoes from the ticking clock elsewhere'). I love her paintings which dance the line between light and darkness, blurred forms and clear symbolism. Appreciated that morbid eerie-ness of the installations. Even the birds. No idea if these birds were previously alive. I think they were. Not the dolls though. I've this thing against dolls and clowns. I hate them. Blame Chucky. Since I was a kid, whenever I received dolls, first thing I did was to twist its head off, then its limbs, and threw everything down the rubbish chute.

Spot 'SINGAPORE'!

Walked to another building where in another room, there was an installation of postcards, of people who sent the artist's their wishes, thoughts and all, lovingly kept through the years and now strung onto a pillar and exhibited. As though it was a wishing tree. Of relationships and friendships. Lost and endured.

Stared at the side pile and grinned. It was an unexpected thing. There was a big card with a huge 'SINGAPORE' blazing across, red and white, orchids and all. If you want to know, it's an old invitation to the artist, inviting her to James Rosenquist's works of '3 Large Paintings of Singapore' that were exhibited in a Paris gallery in 1997. His works used to be shown at our Wetterling Teo Gallery.

Powerful messages all. Walked out of the exhibition spaces feeling contemplative. Of what humans hold on to, what we can't let go of, what we leave behind, and what we keep close, with faith, in faith, or otherwise. The cycle of life, really.