Art at Kattem Nursing Home and Day Centre

Artists: Nirmal Singh Dhunsi. Title: ‘Map of Mind’ Kiki P. Wilhelmsen. Title: ‘Tekstil’ Wiel Katarina Jørgensrud. Title: ‘Fagerhage’ Bente Aarskog. Title: ‘Glasshistorier’ Ingrid Becker. Title: ‘Berøring’ Morten Egstad. Title: ‘Album’ Grethe B. Fredriksen. Title: ‘RAM (Random Access Memory’ Trine Hovden. Title: ‘Hovden 1’ Tove Lise Røkke Olsen. Title: ‘Sparkturer’ Liv Mildrid Gjernes. Title: ‘Nærvær’ Irene Nordli:. Title: ‘Månelyst’. Art consultant: Jorun Kraft Mo.

At Kattem Nursing Home and Day Centre, there is art around almost every corner. Across two floors in the large, open planned communal area and café, this presence is announced by Nirmal Singh Dhunsi’s painting, which glows with its bright colours and shiny strings of pearls. The artist has integrated a part of his North-Indian heritage into this work. The red background is like a soft, textile backdrop for the hanging strings of pearls, which are painted so carefully and in such painstaking detail that it looks like they are three-dimensional, practically hanging on top of the painting’s surface.

Similar in form, and to some extent in colour, is Kiki P. Wilhelmsen’s hanging textile prints in the residents’ common room in the east wing. With golden hues in harmonious combinations, some of the textiles feature rigorous vertical stripes, whereas others feature lush botanical patterns.

Wiel Katarina Jørgensrud has also worked with textile in her large wall piece ‘Fagerhage’ in one of the other common rooms. She has embroidered a lavish range of flowers onto a light-coloured background.

New sensations await in other common areas and corridors, with a series of glass images by Bente Aarskog, in clear pastel colours with inlaid drawings and patterns in clean and simple lines. The images are spread across two common rooms.

Ingrid Becker’s latticework objects, ‘Berøring’, on the first floor above the café are made from a softer material. Two light-coloured large, circular objects of identical form hang side by side, like celestial elements, connected by two “crescent moons” in a darker colour.

Memories of childhood, youth, family and friends make up the theme for the photographs by Morten Egstad, Grethe Britt Fredriksen and Trine Hovden. Egstad has seamlessly inset old photographs on a background of worn wooden cupboard doors, which provide a secure and solid frame for the happy, heartfelt motifs. The photographs make up a triptych in which each part is separated from the next by a vertical panel painted in a pattern with associations to traditional folk art.

Grethe Britt Fredriksen’s photographs are also harbouring memories. In three series of nine motifs each, she shows us familiar objects from everyday life, the way it used to be some years ago. Some are utility articles with evident signs of wear and tear, whereas others are decorative items that have been kept in pristine condition through love and care. These are objects from our common cultural history that will also evoke personal memories and histories for many.

Above a chest of drawers in the day centre’s common room, Trine Hovden has made a “memory wall” with a collection of 17 portraits in an oval shape, typical for these kinds of old pictures. The pictures are ceramic, which means the memories are literally burned in and will last for a long time to come. As well as individual portraits, there are also married couples and pets in this collection of memories.

A modern tradition informs Tove Lise Røkke Olsen and her ceramic wall art. Early on in her artistic career, she acknowledged the traditional form and function from which ceramics spring with her characteristic “buckets”, but at the same time, she moved towards a freedom and independence from this tradition. In her works at Kattem, this is evident in her small-scale sculptural objects, where the associations no longer move towards functional objects, but rather towards something organic – a colourful flower, or perhaps a sea anemone.

Using wood as her material, Liv Mildrid Gjernes has created an entire room at Kattem, a quiet room where there are no disruptions, a space in which to reflect in peace. A wide, slightly curved wall creates a background, and attention is drawn to an oval table in the centre of the room. It could be perceived as an altar, a pulpit or a rostrum, suggesting an open, flexible use of the room within the somewhat solemn setting. As a contrast to the dark wooden panels on the wall, Gjernes has painted small white squares on it, and a similar contrast is visible in the table, which is adorned with lines in an organic pattern.