Avgang Tromsø 2021: Thor Louis Birkedal Andersen
I intervjuserien Avgang Tromsø 2021 har Hakapik snakket med alle nyutdannede kunstnere fra Kunstakademiet i Tromsø. Her forteller Thor Louis Birkedal Andersen om sitt bachelorprosjekt Dream child (2021).
What motivates us to move forward? Thor Louis Birkedal Andersen’s multimedia installation «Dream child» (2021), is a result of him pondering family bonds and future.
By Marion Bouvier, Hilde Sørstrøm
How did the idea for the work you presented at the graduation show start?
– I saw this British artist, Tom Price, who works with epoxy and I found the material extremely interesting; like glass, it has both this liquid property, and you can do so much with it. As an exchange student in Copenhagen I also worked with a professor called Malene Bang, who is an expert in working with epoxy and casting. Then two years ago my sister had a kid and I felt extremely connected to a human being for no specific reason. I wanted to research what attaches people to one another. What are family bonds? And what is the meaning of life? Then I wanted to create a being myself. I think that was what started it.
What about the monitor that is featured in your work as the head of the “dream child”, how did that come into the picture?
– When you look at the monitor, it both represents you looking at something and searching for information on the computer. But it’s also like a mirror in the way that it shows your interests and your personality traits.
The title of the work is “Dream Child.” In the leaflet to the exhibition, you write about a dream you had. Can you say more about that?
– I actually didn’t have the dream. We had to write a text that explains the piece, but I didn’t want to explain it, because it ruins the experience. I wanted to play around with the title, so I thought I could write a dream about a child and this weird thing that there is no meaning in life, but getting children is something that motivates us.
– The title is in two words, because it’s both “Dream child” and “Dream, Child”. It’s encouraging children to dream, but it’s also the dream of having a child.
You mentioned two artists that inspired you with epoxy. What are some of your other recent inspirations?
– What mostly inspired me for this work is how, in corona times, people have been saying that they want everything back to what it was before. Normally people are always talking about moving forward, developing technology, and suddenly everyone wants to go back. It felt like the first time for me that everybody is talking about going back to something no one can really describe. So I wanted to create something about moving forward, creating meaning as a society, as a nation, as a species.
Speaking of inspiration, how do you feel Tromsø has affected your art practice?
– It has definitely affected me! If you go somewhere for three years, it always affects you. But also the darkness and the light, there’s a scenography in Tromsø that doesn’t exist anywhere else I’ve been. There’s the changing environment and nature forces you cannot control. In Copenhagen, nature seems like this very controlled space whereas here in Tromsø, it’s more like nature controls you. I find that extremely inspiring and humbling, which I think I needed; especially as a white heterosexual male, you need to be humble.
What are your plans now that you graduated?
– I am building a studio in Tromsø to work with music and sound. Mihály Stefanovicz invited me to do a live 3,5-hour concert while he was running on a treadmill, as part of his exhibition at Alta Kunstforening this spring, It sparked this fire to work more with ambient music. I want to create soundtrack for spaces in and around Tromsø. Instead of painting Tromsdalstinden, I kind of want to make the sound of it.
