Torbjørn Rodland
b. 1970, Norway
I love cute animals, white cars, rope, logs, ladders, the sun. I like to see urban intellect weakened by spirituality. I put my somewhat sentimental preferences to the test, using the photographic image to fight irony and open up to nature, beauty, purity. Why is inspiration always wearing a corny jacket these days? I try to remove stupidity and humour from certain clichés of the recent past.
It is very difficult for me to make a useful distinction between what is directly observed and what is already mediated. All meaning arrives a little late.
There is not a lot of action in the images I end up doing. Not much happens, but stillness and waiting can be constructive. If you really pay attention, you can reconnect with something essential. I am interested in contemporary, solitary religious experience, the paradoxicality of mystical states. Photography is an open medium. It can be used to reconcile conflicting forces and turn suffering into joy. Mysticism can be a kind of photography
(Text: heroes + holies catalogue, 2002)
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