#hellebou

[theminimuseum]

Ellen Henriette Suhrke, Stone and Plastic, 2012

Digital images. Exhibited at the studio of Susi Law, Bergen, Norway on Monday December 3rd, 2012

Stone and Plastic documents four individuals in the process of moving a stone from its original position outside the forest cabin Hellebou and towards an unknown destination. Having no proper tools at hand, they are left with the materials that are given by the surroundings. Decaying tree trunks, thin ropes and a plastic sled. 

Hellebou is the last place that the MINI Museum was on display and later handed over to Suhrke. After presenting Stone and Plastic at the studio of Susi Law, the museum was handed over to the owner of the studio. 

Ellen Henriette Suhrke (b. 1984, Rana, Norway) lives and works in Bergen, Norway. She is about to complete an MFA at Bergen National Academy of the Arts. Ellens works, ranging from video to photography and text, balance on the border between documentary and fiction. She focuses on traces of human interference with nature, often using everyday occurrences as her starting point. Ellen directs her attention towards specific sites, varying from the most familiar, to the most forren locations.

[theminimuseum]

Marijke Appelman, Nature Copies Us, 2012

Digital image. Exhibited at the Hellebou residency in Bolkesjø, Norway on Sunday October 28th, 2012

Nature Copies Us is a site specific intervention made on the occasion of Marijke Appelman's residency at Hellebou in Bolkesjø, Norway. Founded in 2009 by Johanne Birkeland and Ellen Henriette Suhrke, Hellebou is a traditional log cabin that functions as an artist residency, publishing house, and as a venue for exhibitions and live events. Since the initiative began, more than 50 artists have lived and worked in Hellebou, for a stay of their own chosen duration. The guests are encouraged to bring along a companion, and explore the surrounding fishing lakes, forest and mountain trails. During the residency period Marijke Appelman worked together with the Basel based artist Domenico Billari in the natural isolation that this cabin residency provides.

Nature Copies Us was produced in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and then transported to the cabin where it was temporarily installed. It is a digital picture featuring a close-up of the leaves of an ornamental plant, digitally manipulated to simulate a Rorschach Effect. The "fearful simmetry" of the image is stressed by the title of the work, which reverts the usual saying according to which art copies nature. The image has been displayed hanging the MINI Museum at a tree in the forest outside the cabin, where nature is confronted with itself.

Marijke Appelman (Born 1979 in Haarlem) lives and works in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Her works are small gestures and ideas towards the appreciation of art and life. The works are simultaneously lyric and straightforward. Everyday situations and materials are used in installations, objects, performances and video resulting in an environmental art, but one whose environment is cultural instead of natural. 'Matières à réflexion', thought objects, is the title of an earlier series of works but fit Marijke Appelman's entire portfolio.