the street is our gallery

The Nuart Sandnes Art Trail is a project brought by the team behind Stavanger’s internationally renowned Nuart Festival. M-city’s ’Canoe’ mural tells the story of a group of seafarers working together to move their canoe along the water.

They follow their own light, attached to the bow of the canoe, and row in unison through wind and high seas. The water that surrounds them is vast but they work together to navigate their route safely, bound not only by the chains that connect them but also by their trust for one another. ’Canoe’ is about people attempting to find their own way with the guidance and support of others: a fitting analogy for a project that is built on community and collaboration.

Bergen-based Nipper initiated a huge game of ‘finders keepers’ with his Mission Directives project, which creates alternative zones of communication through the installation of temporary artworks in and around city centres. Each original artwork is free to take home but contains instructions to continue the project by either performing an action in public space or making a new ‘Mission Directive’ and adding to one of the 20 bull dog clips he has installed around Sandnes city centre.

Sandnes also received a bonus artwork from Nipper this weekend – a wheatepaste situated in the tunnel under the train tracks. The piece is called ‘Moses’ and here’s what Nipper has to say about it:

“The piece is a paste-up using Japanese paper. The thin paper and its translucent qualities are why it has been used. It holds spray paint well and is nice to ink paint on. Its a difficult paper to manage, especially if it gets wet.

The image is a portrait made from Michelangelo’s sculpture of Moses (the law giver) with an additional abstract element. The paste up is made of 16 pieces. It’s a technically difficult piece to make since the second, forth and sixth rings had to be placed first and judging the spacing and dealing with wind isn’t easy. The abstract shape was then placed on top and circle’s one, three and five pasted into place to finish. I wanted to give the piece an odd sense of depth and weight. The portrait is skewed, but if you stand at the right angle you can see the whole face. I hope I’ve added something interesting to the space.”

More Pictures from the trail:

M-city

M-city

Nipper

Nipper

Nipper

Nipper

M-city

M-city

About Sandnes

Sandnes is Stavanger’s neighbouring city and the seventh largest in Norway. It is also the fastest growing city in Norway with a staggering 30% of the population age 20 and under. Sandnes has been chosen to host 2017’s prestigious National Festival of UKM (Norwegian Youth Festivals of Art), which will see 600 13-20 year olds descend on the city in June 2017 for four days of arts-based performances, presentations and workshops. Nuart is pleased to be advising on the Street Art element of the programme – one of the three main artistic themes along with film and contemporary dance.

Want to contribute to Nuart’s on-going #missiondirectives public art project? Send us your artwork in a sealable, waterproof bag (approx. 22cm x 15cm) and we will add it to Sandnes’ outdoor gallery. Address: Nuart Festival, Nytorget 17, 4013 Stavanger, Norway.

Photo Credit:  Preben Haugstad