Ellen Espelund exhibiting in Brooklyn

Opening reception was Friday May 6th where the artist attended herself. The group-show has been a great success and has therefore been extended two times to make it possible for more people to see it. The work she is attending with is a photographic work that was specifically chosen for this exhibition by the curators. The other exhibitors are artists and designers based in New York. "To come from Norway and get the opportunity to exhibit here is amazing. This area of Brooklyn is a melting pot of creativity and is often described as where things really happen in relation to art and design in New York at the time and it has been a dream to come here” she says.

Ellen Espelund is born in Oslo, Norway in 1973, currently based in Lillehammer, Norway. She made the choice to dedicate herself fully to art in 2005/2006 after putting art aside in earlier years. She has also wanted to build her artistic career slowly and solid, and has therefore turned down many lucrative offers along the way as time and finances do not stretch in the first phase of building up a foundation for a lifelong career in art. She does not feel she has had to rush things, because as she says: "I'll keep on with this for the rest of my life and then there is no urgency to do everything at once. A solid foundation for my art and projects is more important to me." But after about five years, and with a huge portfolio where only a fraction has been shown online, a small amount private, and nothing on public display, she felt that she was ready to take it to the next level. That her debut as exhibitor should happen in New York, came on the other hand as a surprise to her. A surprise that was very positive and welcomed. The fact that this particular work was chosen also felt very special as it’s a work that is addressing many of the issues she works with as an artist. It’s a work that raises controversial questions in relation to the prejudices we often have with us, and what choices people make. What shapes our choices and how can we choose more in line with what we really deep down want and dreams about. Are we as free as we think we are in the western world?

The concern about these matters, the authenticity in how we live our lives has a base in the artist’s own life story and experiences. Her background in politics, being brought up by parents who taught her about the importance of being independent as a woman, and the fact that she has herself been through a process that took almost a quarter of her life when she completely buried the artistic side of her, or at least tried to when she was only 18 years old due to sudden losses of her mother and grandmother. The needs to handle the extraordinary challenges that followed standing alone as a woman in the family at early age, raising two children alone, studying at night, working extremely hard and more made her strong. She was eager to do what she thought at the time was the right thing to do in life, but as the years went she felt increasingly suffocated by not getting to express herself freely through creativity. The need to be who she really was became stronger. However a total physical collapse had to come before she realized it was time to change direction and find her way back to art. "To experience this after many years of hard work was perhaps not in the long run the worst that could happen to me, since that was what brought me back to art," she says, but points out: "You do not become an artist due to experiencing the tough side of life. The artistic soul is something you are born with, but losses and pain can often free the artistic mind to become even stronger, because you can’t describe without having experienced."

Ellen Espelund works in a very special way with her portraits. She often works in similar ways that photographers in the past did except having the advantage of digital cameras and computer, but there is no use of advanced photographic lighting or expensive editing programs and cameras in her studio, because as she says: "100 years ago, they could also make great pictures without the sophisticated equipment available to buy today," A majority of her work falls into the category of staged photography where the model appears as an actor. She often adds items or other to the costume that has a special meaning, a story behind. The way she gives so much of herself in a photographic project both personally and practically makes her at times not to touch her camera equipment at all. In those periods, she paints and writes, before she again starts on a new photographic project. Photography is a medium she has loved since she first started photographing at the age of 11. As an artist she also works extensively with project outlines for larger installations that she dreams about getting the funding to realize in not too distant future.

You can read more about Ellen Espelund here: www.ellenespelund.com. The exhibition in Brooklyn is open every day until June 12th. For precise opening hours, see website: www.3rdward.com.