On the board walk, down at Amager Beach.
– Sharing work from my portfolio.
Signs of Spring 10
Reply
Tag Archives: Karin Ott
Signs of Spring 9
Signs of Spring 8
Signs of Spring 7
Signs of Spring 5
Still celebrating the little signs that tells us without a doubt that spring is just around the corner – from my portfolio.
But, something is not quite right here – the light, the details. It’s from Ikea’s spring exhibition.
Signs of Spring 4
These little yellow flowers, ‘erantis’, are the first flowers to come up in the spring – from the art project Signs of Spring (follow the link to see the artist statement and all 21 images together).
Signs of Spring 2
The artist statement accompanying this body of work from my portfolio:
The concept of spring is vital to the Danish people. We are a nation of bi-polars. At the darkest time of year we have only eight hours of light while at midsummer it gets light at 5 a.m. and only barely dark by 11 p.m. In the winter we ground, bundle up, almost hibernate, and often tempers are as short as the day. In the summer we are transformed to outgoing people eager to make the most of every single moment of the gift of light.
The transition from darkness to light is marked by signs deeply ingrained in the natives. Every child knows the sequence of the flowers – eranthis, snowdrop, crocus – these milestones in measuring the progress. Every adult will stop and sniff the air through layers of winter clothes on the day of the undefinable turning point. And we all notice how the sun will finally both warm us to our chilled bones and mercilessly reveal the dirty windows and the dust piled up through the dark months.
Spring is a time of anticipation with summer still far enough in the future to promise to fulfill every dream we ever had.
Signs of Spring 1
This is a First for this blog. I want to share one of the series that lives on my portfolio site. The darkness of winter is falling and frankly I find it quite depressing to have to wake up in pitch black. So to cheer myself – and perhaps others with me – up a bit I’ve decided to run ‘Signs of Spring’. It consists of 21 images shot between late February and mid-April in 2012. Enjoy 🙂
With These Hands – A Story of Creation
I’d like to share another story with you. Above is a picture of the art work ‘Floating Island of Pearls’. The official opening was yesterday. below is why I’m showing you this.
The 1.8 * 1.8 meter square of images in the foreground is created by me. Isabel Berglund knitted her amazing work of art with the help of 47 women. I saw her poster asking for volunteers right when the project was starting. “What a wonderful photo opportunity,” I thought and contacted Isabel.
You see the result here. In the end I was invited by Isabel to exhibit along with her. My goal was to create a kind of baby book to show the island how it had come to be created. With mainly close-ups of hands knitting and working with shallow depth of field I tell the story of creation to complement the viewing of the actual art work. Here are a few more images from yesterday.
“The Way They Whisper”
It was rather a big day today. Twenty images from my series “The Way They Whisper” was hung on display at the retirement home where they were created. It was a strong wish on my part to show the people there what I see and it was made possible by laminating prints made on regular paper. Sometimes it’s the message that counts.
It was also quite an experience for me to see my work actually printed. With a very limited budget it doesn’t happen often.
If you are curious about the title of the work, check out the song ‘Whispers’ by Fairground Attraction. Below is the artist statement for this series.
“The Way They Whisper”
In the first half of 2014, I spent four hours every Wednesday in the activity center of a nursing home. The center is open to the residents of the retirement home and twenty users still living in their own homes. I was there to help out, mostly with the four computers, but a lot of time was spent talking to the people and capturing images.
I had been looking forward to hearing their stories and I was not disappointed. One had been a circus artist. Another was born German but had married a Dane during WWII and moved to Denmark where her husband turned out to be a criminal. A third was quite content his wife through 75 years had died recently as now he need not ask permission to go out to dinner. And they all had tales to tell about growing up in hard working homes in a differently world.
This I had expected. What I had not expected was how old these people were. The man who valued his freedom was 98 and had only given up his car two years ago. The man in the image with the tie and a glass in his hand was also past 90. In fact, most of them were.
The vitality and will to live I found in the users of the center left me gaping in wonder. I was pretty sure none of them had read New Age books about being in the now but here they all were – being able to live a life worthy of living, day by day, even if they must know that very soon they must die.
It brought me to consider what is ‘old’ anyway? Do we grow old and decrepit because we expect to and thus program ourselves to live up to our own expectations? How many people die simply because they give up living? If the people I met, born in the early part of the 20’th Century and working hard all their lives, can be going strong at 98, might not the whole concept of aging be open to change?
I believe we are only beginning to scratch the surface of how long we can live if we feel good about it. My aim with this series is to show that life is not over at 90. There is joy, companionship, creativity and good times to be found way past the marker most of us envision earlier in life.
Karins Fotos 