MONUMENTAL BUT VULNERABLE
Monumental but vulnerable, this is how the Norwegian artist Marit Roland describes her paper creations. In the ongoing series Paper Drawings, Roland works with abstract, site-specific, sculptural drawings where she draws with paper instead of on paper. The sheets of paper, which are otherwise just substrates filled with ink, pencil or charcoal, may instead play the main role when Roland wrinkles, twists and folds to create shadows and lines in her three-dimensional drawings. The fragile works of art are perishable and after each exhibition they go to recycling and gets a new life after their time as art. Marit Roland describes her works: Paper Drawing is perishable and cannot be moved in its entirety. It can be made again, but will never be able to appear identically in two places. After the exhibition, the work is recycled and the paper gets a new life after its time as art.
Marit Roland has been drawing all her life, but when she was in her final year at the Art Academy in Trondheim, she felt that she was no longer developing and that she needed to find a new path. When she took down one of her large drawings from the wall, she suddenly saw the paper that now hung in a pin and formed a line on the otherwise empty wall. Her two-dimensional drawing had been transformed into a three-dimensional shape. Since then, Roland has worked in the expanded field of drawing with paper as her only material and allowed the process to become an essential part of her art. By working in new places, in new rooms, Roland is constantly challenged to develop new ways of creating her drawings. Her way of working requires minimal equipment and few demands on the place. The material and the tools she uses are available everywhere, something that is important for the artist who feels that she can always work with her art, no matter what the conditions look like.