Biography

Håkon Røisland was born in Oslo in 1965. He has had a troubled and traumatic past that resulted in his loss of confidence to the establishment.  He left the established society, but after some years on the “edge”, Håkon started to form his experiences as artistic expressions.  He soon felt the need to gain more knowledge on both a procedural level and within philosophy of art. This search for knowledge resulted in a decade of art studies.

Artist Statement

Håkon work with contradictions related to ideologies and norms. Together with focus on social contradictions he challenge taboos related to our way of life, our faith and our roles. Håkon seek out to visualize the spaces that are formed as inner thoughts and ideologies meet the outer world. Each of his photographs contains dualisms’, always showing a game between concrete reality and abstract thoughts.

Process Statement

Håkon work with Instant films, where he always combine elements beyond his control together with consciously chosen motifs. The surroundings he choose for his photography have always a meaning for what he express, and their contributions are not only on an ideological level, but on a concrete one as well. By pressing the films onto the photographed subject, a chemical process forms by particles from the photographed, blending with and affecting the films’ emulsion.