Per Christian Brown
Nordic AIR, 2003, May-Jun
Koppelo school, Ivalo, Inari, Lapland, FIN
Selected biography
Frederikke Qvamsgt.19, 0172 Oslo, Norway
Tel.: +47 95721163
E-mail: perchr@brown.as
Date/Place of Birth: 8 February 1976 in Stavanger, Norway
Education:
95-00 National Academy of Fine Arts,
Oslo (incl. one year at the College of Arts and Crafts in Bergen, Photography Section)
93-95 Rogaland School of Art
Selected Group Exhibitions:
01 Gallery SE, Bergen, Norway
Group show with Mari Slåttelid and Sverre K.
Bjærtnes
01 "The City" Gallery Wang, Oslo, Norway
01 Gallery Brandstrup, Moss
(supported by The Norwegian Council for
Cultural Affairs)
01 Gallery Molitrix, Stavanger, Norway
00 Graduation Exhibition, Stenersenmuseet, Oslo
00 Spring Exhibition, Fotogalleriet, Oslo
99 Exhibition on the 25-year anniversary of The
Society of Fine Art photographers
98 “Diagnosis” Stavanger Art Society
98 "Forest Scenes” Gallery Ekko, Bergen
95 "Images of Matter", Oslo Old Police Station
Solo Exhibitions
01 "At the End of the World", Gallery MGM, Oslo
01 "Lost At a Dead End", Gallery Molitrix, Stavanger
Grants
01 The Norwegian Government’s Travel Grant
02 The Norwegian Government’s two-year working grant
Public Acqisitions:
00 The Norwegian Council for Cultural Affairs
00 Rogaland Art Museum
Projects:
02 “Shadow lessons” Samtiden, Norway
Memberships:
Young Artists’ Society
The Society of Fine Art Photographers
On my work/Description of solo exhibitions
I have been working with the landscape concept over several years. All my shoots are done at night-time. I have photographed parks and locations at the edge of the city, places to which I have a personal relationship, but also selected spots which bear in them an ambiguity. My sessions are carefully planned: they are stagings that are constructed by conscious lighting and meticulous preparation.
I often work in series, i.e. I try to group communicative pictures which will narrate a story. The tableaux I stage are frequently inspired by specific memories from my own childhood. The reconstructing of these memories stages my own personal history.
My objectives and working methods are based on classical aesthetic principles and I work a great deal on composition within the different levels of the picture. Several of the series involve particular locations whose use and identity attract my interest. My 2001 series "Love Scenes", for instance, was shot in a park area outside Stavanger which has for generation been a lovers' strolling area. The photographs enhance the already intense atmosphere there, and the long exposure time reveals the weather conditions. The use of colours is conscious, and I wanted it to resemble horror movies or hand-coloured movies from the 20s.
My work deals with absence, an intensified absence which occurs when the spectator believes that something will happen or has happened. Imaginary stories form, about things that have occurred ahead of the shoot itself. The deserted park becomes a scene, a contemplative, quiet place.
The exhibition "At the End of the World", Gallery MGM, Oslo 2001
The exhibition consisted of a room with portraits and landscapes placed together in pairs. The portraits depicted young men whose gaze moved beyond the confines of the picture towards a chosen spot at the night sky. The landscapes functioned as confines that had to be crossed by their gazes. In another room, there was a triptych entitled "Reconstructed Scenes". Here I employed objects associated with children's play, such as arrows and a tepee. These pictures combine the serious with the humorous inherent in the items. The rest of the exhibition consisted of large-scale landscape pictures entitled "Scenes"; in this connection they functioned as openings, as emotional mirages.
The Exhibition "Lost At a Dead End", Stavanger 2001
The title of this exhibition referred to a feeling of having reached an emotional edge, an end. I wished to put together pictures which reflected the consequences of disappearing totally into one's own mental world.
This exhibition presented auto-erotic portraits as well as a piece entitled "Abandoned Scene 1-2". By exhibiting portraits, I introduced protagonists, main characters, into this delicate, sensitive matter. "Abandoned Scene I" depicts abandoned bedding in a dark factory building placed in conjunction with a picture of a deserted forest road. In this work, I wanted to create a similar level of absence in two different environments. When one pairs portraits with landscapes in this manner, a story is automatically created by which the individuals are connected to the chosen locations.
Per Christian Brown, 2002