Wenche Nilsen and Marie Mon Schjelderup
What is my story?
04.11.23 - 28.01.24
Gallery Dikemark
The exhibition presents extraordinary embroideries by Wenche Nilsen and Marie Moen Schjelderup.
Since 2016, the three institutions have collaborated on a number of exhibitions to promote art made by practitioners outside the professional art field/Outsider Art, as well as art made by patients at Dikemark Psychiatric Hospital. sykehus , preferably from 1920-1950 before specific drugs with antipsychotic and antidepressant effects were available. This is also part of Norwegian art history, although it has been taboo and little known in recent times. This is an ongoing anti-stigma work. By presenting historical works by Schjelderup, the exhibition places art from the collection on Dikemark psykiatriske sykehusmuseum into a contemporary context.
The exhibition opens on Saturday, November 4th at 3:00 PM.
Photo: Tor Simen Ulstein / Kunstdok
Wenche Nilsen (born 1967, Alta) 's main technique is embroidery, often tapestry stitch. She embroiders on skein with 3-ply knitting yarn that she often divides into smaller threads. She embroiders highly abstracted shapes in combination with bold use of shifts and color play. The result is unusual patterns that can be reminiscent of high-tech computer chip cards or geographical maps.
Shape, color, size, background and the way she embroiders the stitches vary. The emphasis is on clear and strong colors. Wenche Nilsen currently works in a protected enterprise. She has had several solo and group exhibitions and has been purchased by several institutions in Norway, and she has a permanent place in the Trastad Collections permanent art exhibition. Wenche Nilsen participated in the National Museum's opening exhibition in 2022 in Oslo.
Marie Moen Schjelderup's work is included in the collection of patient art at Dikemark psykiatriske sykehusmuseum OUS which opened in 1984, and which was the first psychiatric history museum in Norway. The museum has an extensive collection of cultural historical objects, and a historical art collection that includes approx. 1400 works of art (approx. 550 framed works and 850 works of various nature) created by former patients at the hospital. The works have been collected and preserved thanks to great voluntary efforts from the Museumsforumet at Dikemark.
Photo: Tor Simen Ulstein / Kunstdok
Through the exhibition we wish to honor the bodily knowledge that lies in creating. This knowledge arises from the encounter with the material and sensual in the material and the action itself. Creative processes are a redefinition of the world and can also be an identity creator; an anchoring in both an external and internal existence.
Trastad Collections/National Center for Outsider Art is a museum with a focus on marginalized groups and has been a partner with Dikemark psykiatriske sykehusmuseum and Trafo Kunsthall for several years.
The exhibition is supported by Asker kommune , The bay Fylkeskommune , Colorful Ashes, Kulturdirektoratet and the Fritt Ord Foundation.
Photo: Tor Simen Ulstein / Kunstdok
The exhibition is a collaboration between Trafo Kunsthall , Trastad Collections, National Center for Outsider
art / South Troms Museum and Dikemark psykiatriske sykehusmuseum OUS.
Curated by Simone Romy Ritter and Anne Siv Falkenberg Pedersen.