Notes from unsettled fields -our ruins lie ahead, behind is the willows

2019

Plants, water, silk, wool and stones. Time, light and heat. Color that dissolves and is captured. The choice between the silkworm and the cocoon. Long fibers that have grown through wind and burning sun. The stone that builds and divides. The random journey of water. Growths from contested soil.


Marie Skeie is presenting an installation with plants, water, silk, wool, stone and glass. A slow process takes place in the jars where dye from the plants dissolves in the water aided by time, light and heat. The fibers from wool and silk further absorb the color from the water over time. The plants inside the glass containers come from the West Bank, Palestine and Finnmark, Norway and are sealed with stones from Norway’s border with Russia and Finland and from the coastal shore of Norway.


The title of the work is inspired by a poem Hoopoe taken from the poetry collection 'Unfortunately, it was paradise' by Mahmoud Darwish. A poem dealing with the need to leaving one´s homeland. Skeie relates it to the landscape and our surroundings, what lies ahead of us and what do we leave behind on our journey forward in time?

Installation view, Terminal B.

Hypericum

2020

An installation with fiber and glass. Sand grains and straw. The fragile and the resilient. Glass spheres are enclosed in twisted slings. The fragile in defencelessness. Willingness to defend and protect.

The Hypericum installation consists of glass spheres cradeled in slings. The glass is hand-blown in Hebron, Palestine where the craft goes back more than 500 years. The slings are colored with hypericin, a dye found in St. John’s wort, which is currently used as an antidepressant. In earlier times it was used for protection. Central to the work are the vulnerable, the need for protection and the experience of being powerless.

The Stitch Project

2012

The Stitch Project started July 2012 at the Riddu Riddu festival.

The Stitch project is an international art collaboration with focus on dialogue, knowledge, dissemination, politics and crafts through interactive participation between artists and the public. On a 10 meter long linen tablecloth we invite to interactive performance with embroidery, planting from local plants and cooking and spinning a wire thread that goes from Kåfjord, Norway to Hebron,Palestine, we create a space for dialogue and exchange of knowledge. The Stitch Project (TSP) has since 2012 worked with craft, landscape and people in Palestine, Norway, Iceland, Ukraine, Latvia and Sweden.

With the project we introduce crafts into new surroundings and dialogue about culture and politics in new surroundings. Through art we want to involve people in the public space and create an art project that serves as a meeting place and dissemination site.

The project involves the artist Hilde Hauan Johnsen, Kiyoshi Yamamoto, Marie Skeie, Omaya Salman and Britta Marakatt Labba. 

 

Stitching during Barents Spetakkel 2019, Kirkenes

Plant dye, Barents Spetakkel 2019 

Plant dye at Palestine Museum, 2018 

Embroidery session in Slacutych, Ukraine 

From embroidery session with wowen in Rantis, Palestine

IT’S ALL FOR NOTHING

2018

On a square by the Oslo City Hall in the centre of Oslo, you suddenly stumble across a map of Europe – specifically, the outline of the Schengen free-movement zone – traced out in 9600 1-Norwegian Kroner coins.

You are free to pick up a coin or leave it untouched. If you prefer, take back control of the borders and reshape ‘Fortress Europe’ however you want by moving the coins around. This confrontational public sculpture is Norwegian artist Marie Skeie’s installation It’s All for Nothing, which will be placed behind Oslo’s Rådhus (City Hall) as part of the opening evening of Ultima 2018.

Skeie’s work deals with current social and political realities and are frequently centred on issues around borders and migration. Her artworks set up situations that can be manipulated, or where stories can be unfolded and exchanged. It’s All for Nothing calls to mind the relationship between economics, population displacement and public attitudes to migrants. 

Realized with the help of Muraf Fares, Anita Antal, Mohammad Dasouki, Linn Hamnvik (Dancer), Motaz al Habbash and passer-byes.

 

1000 FUGLAR / THREADS ART PROJECT

2013

Installasjon, broderi, tekst, deltakelse.
En rekke institusjoner og individer fra Norge, India,
Palestina, Indonsia og andre steder har deltatt i prosjektet.

Fra utstilling "1000 fuglar" Foto: Marie Skeie

Bilder fra utstilling. Foto: Marie Skeie

Fra Threads Art Project i Gaza. Foto: Mahmoud Al Kurd

Fra Threads Art Project Foto: Mahmoud Alkurd

Fra Threads Art Project med studenter fra Sekolah Bogor Raya, Indonesia

Fra Threads Art Project i Ytre Ålvik. Foto: Marie Skeie