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Birgir S. Birgisson
How would you define your relationship to the tradition
of painting?
I chose painting specifically for its tradition. I actually
started my studies within graphic arts and, more precisely,
woodcuts. After that I studied in the multimedia department
at the art school in Strasbourg, even though it was specifically
painting that I was preoccupied with during that time.
However, I wanted to get rid of questions about technique
and medium. When it comes to influences or references,
I don’t really have any painter that has contributed to
what I do technique-wise – references come from painting
itself and its histories. Because painting has such a
rich tradition, these formal things are not really the
issue. Strangely enough, most of the people in the media-art
department were painting and in the painting department
students used other media. As for why, I don’t have the
answer.
Does painting have some specific qualities that have
contributed to your using this medium?
When I started to paint, I soon found out that it suited
my ideas and, nowadays, I would not use any other medium.
It was impossible to reach a sense of timelessness and
the overall airy feeling that are present in my works
with other media. Painting has endless possibilities.
I chose painting, so as to be free of questions about
technique or media, but now more and more people ask,
why I paint so lightly, in an almost transparent manner.
People ask whether they really are paintings. I have in
a way reached a paradox, a place where painting that should
be there isn’t, and still these questions come up. Normally,
when painting is discussed, the questions focus on the
medium’s inherent formal qualities, and not so much on
content. That does not happen so often with other media.
One is always in a defensive stance when it comes to painting.
In my opinion discussions of that kind are a way to avoid
confronting works, ideas behind them, or substantial matters.
I could not achieve the sense of timelessness, or the
overall airy feeling in my works, in any other medium.
Do you make sketches? Sometimes the starting point
is an old photograph of nurses from publications like
History of Nursing. How much do they contribute
to the composition of the work?
I use photographs to get a certain feel or idea. Some
details in my works, like
nurses’ caps or uniforms, are based on those photos. I’m
not after a sense of the 1970s or 1960s, even if most
photos are from that period. The colours that appear in
paintings are not those in the photos and their function
is to create a feeling of lightness. They are images of
memories or pictures that come to your mind. They should
be so vaguely painted that the viewer can almost blow
them away with a snap of the finger. My works just become
lighter and lighter. The most recent ones have almost
disappeared.
The evasive quality of the picture also gives room
for viewer’s interpretations and, on the other hand, demands
concentration from the viewer.
I have said that my technique is close to whispering.
Whispering is more effective than shouting or speaking
aloud. I believe that this quiet quality of my works enables
me to get an almost personal contact with the viewer.
They say that one should be loud and drop bombs nowadays,
but I can’t be bothered. One of painting’s positive qualities
is that it gives the viewer the power to decide when and
how and how long one spends with the painting.
I have been thinking about the time you spend looking
at the work and, when it
comes to my paintings, they just become more visible with
time. It is also an
important part of my working process and, at the end of
the day, they become really clear to me, and when I return
in the morning they have more or less disappeared. So
I have to get reacquainted with them again. Same goes
for the viewer as well.
Do you work with several paintings at the same time?
No, just with one work at a time. I have to limit myself
to one at a time.
Do you work with other media nowadays?
Not anymore, except for drawing. When I did woodcuts,
they started to look more like paintings, and in a way
my works now are a continuation of that.
Your works do have woodcut-like elements. They are
flat, devoid of depth and the figures also have strong
borderlines. They are also still.
Stillness is very important to me. I like the fact that
the movement in the image or the inherent narrative is
dependent on the viewer. I also used strong contrasts
when I depicted teenagers in a very still manner, even
though in reality they are considered to be restless and
on the move. The stillness acts like a starting point
for a story or narrative. It is like a freeze-frame of
a movie.
The starting point for the Blond Nurses series was
the anti-racist media uproar about ‘blond’ Finnish and
Polish nurses working in British hospitals in the late
1990s. You have recently been painting close-ups of objects
used by nurses. Why did you start doing those works?
The Blond Nurses series came as a response to the issues
of race and racism.
When I started to paint them, I found out that a nurse
symbolises and is connected to various things. It felt
like an interesting subject matter. Ideas just came, and
now I’m focusing more on the act of nursing, healing and
helping others, and on the physical contact between the
nurse and the patient.
Some of your newer images are quite disturbing – they
contain elements that are not solely soothing.
They are still just about nursing – about the act of somebody
healing you. It is up to the viewer whether there are
sexual or violent elements in them. To me they are almost
like religious images. One of the paintings to be shown
in Proje4L depicts the act of making beds. It is about
a strictly ruled process of eliminating the corporal –
the repetitive procedure of reaching white and clean zero
point over and over again. I’m not sure where these close-ups
will take me. Hopefully some place interesting.
How do you make the personal into the general? Do your
works provide tools for living, or what standpoints do
you take?
You mean like making the world better? Of course, my works
pose questions about social issues like racism. I wanted
to re-create a situation paralleling that when an MP complained
that there were too many blond nurses in British hospitals.
I wanted to examine the world that she was afraid of.
A blond nurse is a many-faceted symbol in the Western
world and gives room for many interpretations. I do not
want to create a closure of interpretation, and it is
important that the viewer can take the narrative where
she wants. The Blond Nurses series put forward an image
of a cotton-wool-like world which, at the same time, can
be something really scary. My paintings depict the human
effort to hide the fear, blood and guts behind an image
of purity. They can be read innocently, without seeing
the inherent paradox, or one can interpret them as images
of power and control.
One of your paintings is now in the Landspítalinn
University Hospital in Iceland. How have your works been
received there?
I have received many invitations to have tea with local
nurses, who have been keen to show their photo-albums
to me. I have not done that yet, though.
What do you read?
At the moment I am reading a book about fly-fishing. That
is currently my literary source of inspiration. I also
play in a country-punk band called Arnar og Kekkirnir.
Kari Immonen
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Birgir S. Birgisson
From the series
Blond Nurses
1998-2000
oil on canvas
130 x 160
photo: Vigfus Birgisson
Birgir S. Birgisson
Blond Nurses
1998-2000
oil on canvas
160 x 110
photo: Vigfus Birgisson
Birgir S. Birgisson
From the series
Blond Nurses
2000-2002
oil on canvas
70 x 100
photo: Vigfus Birgisson
Birgir S. Birgisson
Blond Nurses
1998-2000
oil on canvas
110 x 160
photo: Vigfus Birgisson
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