| Janicke Olsen |
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My journey to critical awareness - optimism Pic. 1 When I was younger I dreamt that i could make a difference by focusing on one of the largest industries in the world. By the symbolic act of taking small arms out of circulation one by one… So I set my mind to go to one of the most unstable ares in the world and get guns to an Art projct to make my point... optimistically as I was, I went to Afghanistan.. Pic. 2 After a lot of incidents in the mountains looking for weapons, broken deals with local warlords I became really pessimistic. Here is a soldier who wants his weapon back… and I don´t want to give it back.. after the picture was taken I was forced to give the AK-47 back… So I wandered around for a while in the mountains desilliusionated thinking... The power of one can make a change… is bullshit. Pic. 3 and 1 After a lot of bewildering wandering I finally got 3 weapons that I started dismantle and working on at the University of Kabul. Pic. 4 During my journey I became more critical aware of peoples motives and politics in Afghanistan so I decided to make a set of chess made up partly by the gunparts. Pic. 4-5 My initial idea with the project was to give something back to the area where the weapons usage history came from, and auction the finished Art piece to a good cause in that area. In this case an all girl school in Badakshan. As I had become more critically aware I thought why can´t Afghan refugees in Norway participate in the project and show solidarty to the people who struggle home in Afghanistan. So when i came back to Norway I got clay from the rich olifield Gullfaks C outside the coast of Norway and made Norwegian and Afghan refugee children do child labour ;D to make the top parts of the chesspieces. Furthermore, in my now critical awareness I had no problem contacting the mayor in Bergen (and one of the richest men in Bergen, coffee empire) and ask him to buy the chess set, which he did. He signed the contract on a napkin on the bus on his way to a meeting… Pic. 6 Hopefully the girlschool in Badakshan get´s better schooling facilites now due to the new funds, but i´m not surprised if there is some guys in the background that takes their share. Sincerely Jannicke Olsen Visual Artist Bergen,Norway. Critically aware... with some optimism... trying to be a part of change... but I don´t know if I´m a part of it… 1.  2.  3.  4.  5.  6.  |