Interconnected: 35mm, nudity & the male gaze
Art can be so much: A sculpture can take your breath away and an acrylic painting can hold the power of awakening a memory in you that you thought you’d forgotten completely. In many ways, art is like perfume. Each one of us have our own taste and preferences: and each scent will move you differently than the next person - yet we can appreciate even the smells that aren’t meant for us personally. It’s also true that our taste in perfume, as well as art, tend to change over time, and even fluctuate as a result of mood or occasion. Like any perfume, art will have an impact on you, whether you like it or not. But instead of being a tiny glass bottle which is supposed to make you smell like a rosebush, art can reflect complex stories, where every artist has something unique to bring to the table.
“Interconnected” is a column, where we bring together the thoughts and beliefs of people from around the globe, while focusing on a common theme. One of the many lessons we have learned over the past few years of running Nuet is how similar, yet different we are. In this version of “Interconnected”, we’re making room for three female artists to display their work.
Meet Ingeborg, who’s watercolors can depict raw emotions that most people tend to hide, while also finding ways to challenge the traditional male gaze. Meet Irene who falls in love with the world over and over again, through her camera lens. And meet Scherwin who uses art to challenge her very own relationship with nudity. In their own way, each one of these women are capturing human experiences, and because art is not a one-way medium, we asked the artists to share some of their personal thoughts behind their works and practices.
Discover their story
Ingeborg Nærø Tangen
📍Oslo
IG: @Ingeborgnaro
Medium: Watercolor paintings/ illustrations
☜ Photo showcasing a selection of Ingeborg’s work
My name is Ingeborg Nærø Tangen. I am 20 years old and studying at an art academy in Oslo, Norway.
I work with watercolor and I focus on themes like mental health, body positivity and feminism. I gather inspiration from a variety of areas, like literature, politics, philosophy and a number of artists. I am especially fascinated by psychology and emotional expression.
This is a series I created to raise awareness around mental health. I believe that a facial expression often says more than words, and it reveals what a person really feels. The idea that emotions are dangerous, that they need to be restrained and ignored, is still a big part of the western culture. I wanted to challenge this idea, and create honest portraits of human beings at their most vulnerable state. I believe feelings come for a reason and that confronting them is important.
With these illustrations, I want to celebrate, normalize and honor a variety of bodies in a non-sexual way. Idealization of only one body type, sexualizing and photoshopping leads to an unhealthy focus on appearance. Multi-billion dollar industries profit from teaching young women to hate their bodies, and we are taught to value our attractiveness through the male gaze. I want to challenge the way women are expected to look and act. Nobody deserves to feel like their body is an object made for other people’s consumption. A woman’s life purpose is not to be visually appealing.
📍Stavanger
IG: @irenemidttun
Medium: Photography
☜ Picture taken by Irene in India
Hello!
My name is Irene, 21 years old from Stavanger. My interest for photography lies in a curiosity of what makes us so diverse and what unites us as human beings. It is through a combination of encountering culture during my travels and documenting the culture, emotions, colours and daily life through my camera lens that I have developed an interest for cultural differences.
With a desire for getting a different culture than my own up close, I decided to move to South Eastern part of India (the charming town of Pondicherry) the fall of 2017 and study Peace and Conflict for one semester. Living in such a different society from what I am used to in my hometown Stavanger helped me develop a critical, curious and observant eye which has made it easier to further develop my photographical skills.
My camera is an important tool for me to document encounters, as well as being a break from my daily life and satisfying my desire to create. Through several photography courses and extensive browsing online, I have taught myself the technical part of my camera, this allows me to decide what I would like to communicate with a photo.
Last autumn I moved to Lyon and lived there for two semesters. Besides from studying French, I spent almost every Wednesday afternoon at «Bloo École de photographie et d'image contemporaine”. This is where I learnt shooting with 35mm film and how to develop the film myself afterwards. A big accomplishment and something I always dreamt of. Being able to shoot with a new method, has changed the way I see photography and the way I express myself through my lens. I have learnt that a simple photo can say more than we think about the photographer’s way of seeing the world and, maybe most important, the time the photo is taking in.
📍Dortmund
IG: @displosivus
Medium: Digital illustrations
☜ Illustration by Scherwin, showcasing her favorite color palette.
My Name is Scherwin and I am currently studying visual communication design at Dortmund, Germany. I have always been “into” arts, but at the end of high school I stopped drawing and started to try out other mediums.
I think if you belong to that sort of person who has a creative mind, at times you are able to practise a lot of arts, because you feel so deeply connected to it, but also it could turn out into the opposite, so the time where it can take weeks or even months without barely touching your pencil, because you can't free your mind for the process of creating stuff.
So, 1 1/2 years ago I started a nude drawing class, this class helped me to get my inspiration back and with that I began to draw again. I am truly an enjoyer of earth colours and the ways of combining them and their visual impressions.
In my artworks, simplicity has also a main function. This simplicity stretches beyond of me as an artist also in so many other sections in my life, especially in my everyday - life and way of living. I love experimenting with the interaction between bodies, colours and abstracts forms, because their final combination fascinates me. These are entities you observe every day, which connection do they have?
I can’t say much about the woman, sometimes I think I draw myself, but then it is a completly different person. Nudity never hasn’t been an easy topic for me, especially in early teenage years, but since i deal with it in a creative way, it feels like the most natural and beautiful thing, i know so far. I think my art helps to develop my personality and also my connection with my body and my mind. When I’m drawing it’s like meditating, I feel every line I draw, and I connect myself with it.
For me, it feels like my art helps me to develop or even form my personality and whats more, my inner connection to my body and mind/ soul. while drawing, it's like meditating...
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