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A tile of Furuholmen
Soon you can get yourself a tile made by Magne Furuholmen
"I don't know", Magne Furuholmen answers laconically. He has just held a 15-minute monologue about last year's exhibition "Monologues", he has talked with increasing enthusiasm about "Climax" which was unveiled by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore, and he has talked himself warm about melting snowmen and "Anticlimax" at Galleri Flø on Sunnmøre. But what the audience can expect when his next exhibtion opens in Porsgrunn Art Society's gallery next Saturday, is still a well-kept secret. Not least to himself.
"I'll bring what I'll bring, and then it'll be what it'll be. I haven't thought the idea completely through yet, and I don't want to formulate it to myself just yet. I'll always want to sabotage what I have accomplished, so it will be like an utlagt selvskudd". [Difficult to translate, but he means "setting up a trap for yourself"]. "There's the title", an excited Furuholmen says, and adds glowingly:
"Utlagt selvskudd. If you don't use that phrase, I'll use it as the title of my exhibition".
Collaborating with PP
It's unknown at the moment if he will be present at the opening, but one thing is certain; the artist is once again going to collaborate with workers at Porsgrund Porselænsfabrikk [Porsgrund Porcelaine Factory] and paint on 200 porcelain tiles. The last time they collaborated was a commission for Statsbygg in Berlin [to decorate the Norwegian embassy in 1999], where Furuholmen toyed with the common conception of porcelain as an exclusive material. The fact that he gave the toilets the same decoration as the soup plates wasn't to everyone's tastes.
"Some of the guests became a bit nauseous when they went to the bathroom and found the same decorations in there as on the plate they had just been eating from. But there is a connection: what you take in has to go out again", says Furuholmen and laughs.
On Thursday he'll arrive in Porsgrunn to start working on the exhibition which opens at Porsgrunn Art Society next Saturday. It could be that some of Porsgrund Porcelain Factory's meticulously working artists and designers will feel their hands shaking when Furuholmen goes to work with the paint splashing everywhere.
Painted on covers
When the porcelain factory is visited by the multi-talented artist, he'll be painting on tiles that have been made at the factory. He did a similar concept in the atelier at Oslo City Hall, which was used by [famous Norwegian artist] Henrik Sørensen in the years following WWII.
In the atelier at the top of the City Hall's west tower, Furuholmen painted on 300 covers which would contain a vinyl album that he had composed himself. The unique works of art were sold online, together with a poster of the whole painting and a film about the process. The vinyl albums are sold out, the music can be downloaded from the internet. Making the works easily available to common people, is an idea that he has transferred from the music to the world of art.
Letters in paintings
"It isn't very interesting to make 20-30 prints, but the advantage is that the prices are lowered, making the works more available to the public", Furuholmen says. He experiments with different printing methods, and likes the sense of direction inherent in making graphic prints.
"Once you've made a statement, you can't retract it. You need confidence about the different steps of the process, and if you've said a, you have to say b", Furuholmen says. Remnants from the last work gets to make the foundation for the next. He often uses letters in his works, deconstructs the words, breaks them down to single letters and re-connects them in new combinations.
"It becomes a sort of game with letters, a breakdown of their original meaning. The letters contribute to giving the works form and clarity. I often use my own lyrics as a starting point", says the artist, who puts as much focus on form as on the content. Lately, he's been working a lot with monotypes, which is a printing technique where each print becomes unique.
Jet fighter
The house of cards called "Climax", which is on display at the Nobel Peace Center, is made up of aluminum from scrap dealers across Norway and Europe. Magne Furuholmen did throrough research on the element, and used an excavator to dig for pieces of scrap that he could use. One day he received a phone call: would the artist be interested in an F-16 fighter plane?
"Everyone should get themselves a fighter plane before they turn 50", the 45-year-old laughs. The fighter plane no longer had the ability to fly or pollute, but it was perfect for Furuholmen's artistic idea. His dream about hanging the tail end from the roof didn't work out, though.
"There wasn't much left of that part".
Regular visitor at the hospital
Last year, he exhibited monotypes at Galleri Trafo, where TA meets him now. He then used hospital sheets as canvases. And he has been a regular visitor to hospitals himself. Nine years ago he was treated with electro shocks and beta blockers because of cardiac arrhythmia, and when he was a child he was so wild and restless that he threw himself out from the second floor.
"I was careless already as a child, and broke my arms and legs all the time", the artist says. Now he releases his restlessness when making art. A lot has happened with Magne Furuholmen since he studied under Kjell Nupen from 1989 to 1993. Two years later he had his big breakthrough as an artist with the exhibition "Kutt" at Henie-Onstad Art Center, where the artworks contained lyrics made by a father who died all too young. Furuholmen first agreed to exhibit at Porsgrunn Art Society several years ago.
Just starting
"I have noticed that it's an art society that's not afraid to just go for it", he says. Despite having experienced success as a film music composer, visual artist and musician, he still feels like he's just started his career.
"I'm actually just getting started. I think that will be the epitaph on my gravestone as well: Shit, just as I was getting so well into it".
- So that's one thing that's certain?
"Ha ha, I guess it is now. And in the course of this conversation I've had the idea for this exhibition completely thought out too".
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Written by Anne Lill Aas.
Translation by Jakob S.
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