A clever person once said "don't attempt to understand the world before you understand your own backyard" (in fact I did, just now). Hence this masterwork is a study on my own back yard. All details deemed irrelevant has been abstracted away, leaving just the elementary architectual surfaces and angles.
This series, called geography lessons, derives it's title from seemingly endless, pointless and useless hours spent in classrooms well equipped with maps and charts, but dissapointingly void in other means of entertainment. Hence, when the subject matter was not too demanding attentionwise (which in retrospect was alarmingly frequent), I derived some desperately sought amusement from staring blindly at some map of Osceania, The Barents Sea or India until, at some point, the islands, peninsulae or continents turned into some sort of fantasy creature. So here it is: The world map as it looks when you stare at it for too long...
"Toes" - 2004
Acryl on Canvas 140x90cm (external dimensions)
Price suggestion: €235000
This work, distributed on 10 canvases of multiple dimensions, utilizes a simple and sublime mosaic effect to describe and enhance the feeling of having toes (at least on the right foot). Each toe has been assigned two surfaces on which they can live and explore their surroundings. This two-fold separation can be seen as symbol of the internal forces acting upon a toe, as well as the partitioning of good and evil within limbs in general. In addition there is an inter-toe communication present in the form of each toe being the neighbor (both physically and chronologically) of the one next to it. This interaction represents the friction commonly felt between toes while walking.
"Smiley" - 2004
Acryl on Canvas 60x60cm
Price suggestion: €95000
This work blends the classic styles of cubism and neocubism with the antialiasing based rendering techniques of modern computer graphics. The motive - the semicolon/parenthesis smiley - is a powerful symbol of modern dialogue, commonly used for representing the tickling satisfaction of having said something clever. If Leonardo da Vinci had had access to the courier font style, he wouldn't have had to paint Mona Lisa ;)
"Zvi Masel" - 2003
Acryl on Canvas 50x50cm
Price suggestion: €155000
Scary, but true: The world is ruled by grumpy old men with prostate problems! This portrait of the Israeli ambassador to Sweden - famous for his January 2003 trashing of the installation "Snow white and the madness of the truth" by Dror Feiler and Gunilla Sköld Feiler at the Historical Museum in Stockholm, Sweden - is the first in a planned series depicting Grumpy Old Men With Too Much Power. Should be plenty of material there...
"Note 5 (Virtuoso)" - 2003
Acryl on Canvas 70x90cm
Price suggestion: €193000
The fifth (and so far the last) in the Note-series shows a bass player submerged in improvisation. The black background, completely hiding the surroundings of the player and being made even darker by the three spotlights flooding the stage with what appears to be the absence of light, gives the impression that the musician is there, but not present. He lives completely isolated within is virtuous performance, where his body has merged with his instrument to the point where it is no longer clear if the musician plays the instrument, or if the instrument plays the musician. Also, this work states that bass players are cool!
"Note 4 (Pixels)" - 2003
Acryl on Canvas 60x80cm
Price suggestion: €219000
The fourth note (or the fourth quarter-note to be precise, completing a full note) symbolizes the use of computerized tools in modern music, not only by composers, but also performers and conductors, now able to store enough sheet music for a 10 year symphony their USB2-compatible conducting staff.
"Note 3 (Samba et Bossa Nova)" - 2003
Acryl on Canvas 70x90cm
Price suggestion: €178000
This work represents one half of Brazil. The flag and the national slogan of this fascinating country has been slightly modified to fit the soul of a country where the children are born with vibrating hips and stomping feet. The other half is Soccer.
"Note 2 (Blues)" - 2002
Acryl on Canvas 60x80cm
Price suggestion: €143000
At first listance (the audio equivalent of "glance"), all blues songs are the same. They're modeled over a blueprint that is so simple that is almost boring. But behind the blueprint, several shades of blue appear; each one being the combination of the pure blue with some other color, representing the bilateral loans between different musical directions. This all makes for an excellent theme for a painting, but doesn't really change the fact the blues is pretty boring music...
"Note 1 (Electronica)" - 2002
Acryl on Canvas 70x81cm
Price suggestion: €128000
This work, the first in a series with the musical note as theme, visualizes the electronic influences in modern music. All layers are represented, from high level software source code, via byte- and binary code though the hardware audio module. These are all things that most musicians, including hard-core electro-heads are happily ignorant about. That a composer does not have a clue about the workings of the enabling technologies of his profession may be a drawback, but then again, there are no known reports of J.S. Bach building his own pipe-organs...
"Momentum Man" - 2002
Pencil on Scratch Paper 30x21cm
Price suggestion: €11300
Engineers can work under the most extreme conditions...
"The Phantom Pedant" - 1999
Pencil on Scratch Paper 30x21cm
Price suggestion: €10800
It's not a fish, it's a mammal...
"Titled" - 1997
Pen on Wrinkled Paper 30x21cm
Price suggestion: €14300
Nude man eating a nacho...
"Beer Dude" - 1997
Pencil on Wall 86x150cm
Price suggestion: Priceless
Livingroom wall painting which may have been initiated by a bottle of 20yrs old MacAllan. Co-artist/whiskey taster: Håvard Gullbekk. Unfortunately this artwork was lost forever when we were forced to wash it of the wall when moving out of our apartment in Apple Lane, Lawrence, KS