å.
åse vikse
Åse Vikse is a multidisciplinary printmaker who refers to herself as a wandering artist as well as a coast person.
Her visual expression is rooted in the coast and stems from her west-Norwegian background.
She is currently based in northeast England.
The predominant factors in her creative process are walking and found objects – the chance encounter during an observational state of movement.
Vikse strives to source the material she uses and the process of developing these as environmentally sustainable as possible.
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EXHIBITIONS
Upcoming
2023 Group, 'Nye medlemmer', Norske Grafikere/The Association of Norwegian Printmakers, Oslo, NO
Current
2023 Group, 'One and Another', Northern Print, Newcastle, UK
Past
2023 Group, 'Inspirational Women Artists', A Space Arts, Southampton, UK
2022-23 Group, 'These are Our Treasures', (selected object/tresure) Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, UK
2022-23 Group, 'Gallagher & Turner’s Open Exhibition' Gallagher & Turner, Newcastle, UK
2022 Solo, 'å på K', KFUK-Hjemmet/The Norwegian YWCA, London, UK
2022 Group, 'The Anxiety of Interdisciplinarity', part of IMPACT 12 International Printmaking Conference, Bristol, UK
2022 Group, 'Ossuary', Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield, UK
2022 Group, 'Mind - be here, present/be here now', Kingshill House, Gloucestershire, UK
2021–22 Group, 'Uig Open 2021/22' (online), Hulabhaig, Outer Hebrides, UK
2021 Group, 'BarnStorm', MA Show, Middlesex University, London, UK
2021 Group, '#WalkCreate Gallery', Online, University of Glasgow et al.
2021 Solo – part of Folkestone Fringe, Oxfam Books & Music, Folkestone, UK
2021 Group, 'Wish I Was There', touring: London Waterloo Station, Reading Station,
Liverpool Lime Station, Leeds Station, Glasgow Central Station, all UK
2021 Group, 'Almanac', MA Interim Show, Coningsby Gallery, London, UK
2020–21 Group, 'Teesside Print Prize 20', Middlesbrough, UK
2020 Group, 'The Resilient Self II', Espacio Gallery, London, UK
2020 Group, '(virtual) Degree Show', Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, UK
2020 Group, 'Uig Open 2020: Re-imagined',(online) Hulabhaig, Outer Hebrides, UK
2020 Group, 'Interim show', Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, UK
2017 Group, 'Short Course Students' Show', Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, UK
2016 Group, 'Short Course Students' Show', Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, UK
ARTIST RESIDENCY
2024 ArtsIceland Residency, Ísafjörður, ICE
EDUCATION (ARTS/DESIGN)
2021–2022 MASTER OF ARTS with Distinction, Fine Art (Printmaking),
Middlesex University, London, UK
2017–2020 BACHELOR OF ARTS WITH HONOURS, Communication Design: Illustration,
Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, UK
2004–2006 Grafisk Design, Høyskolen Kristiania/Kristiania University College, Bergen, NO
TALKS
2021 Presentation, ‘The Matter of Circulation’ student research conference, Folkestone, UK
AWARDS
2021 Winner (top 20), woodcut ‘Dover’, Network Rail’s ‘Wish I Was There’
2019 Shortlisted, animation series ‘#stealmyideas’, Creative Conscience Award (link)
COURSES
2019 Woodcut Bootcamp w/Tom Huck, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, UK
2019 Mokuhanga Printing w/Michael Waight, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, UK
2018 Risograph Workshop, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, UK
2018 Etching Workshop w/Michael Waight, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, UK
2016–2017 Printmaking Intermediate w/Lyndsey Gibb, Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, UK
2015–2016 Printmaking Foundation w/Lyndsey Gibb, Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, UK
2015–2016 Life Drawing Intermediate w/Rebecca Westguard, Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, UK
2003 Oil Painting w/Jarl-Hugo Låstad, Folkeuniversitetet, Bergen, NO
MEMBERSHIP
Norske Grafikere / The Association of Norwegian Printmakers
NBK Norske Billedkunstnere / The Association of Norwegian Visual Artists
Northern Print, Newcastle, UK
artist's maps
about mapping
a brief introduction to my mapping process
The mapping processes always start with research on a given theme, connected to a place, a landscape, or a person. The process is never identical and always unique to each map, but the common denominator is that I walk the land while I track my movements. I also carry the map, often a large sheet of paper that is folded like a traditional map so that I can easily bring it with me. I both observe and document the landscape, systematically using the technique Frottage, which involves rubbing the sheet so that you get an impression of the substrate. I also gather found objects, preferably organic, such as feathers. The objects often appear in other developed forms in the creative process, be it as an imprint or as an object for woodcuts. After the walk, I end the tracking, it is always just as interesting to observe how I have physically drawn a line in the landscape. I line that I may apply to the map as a final layer with the technique Monotype. Preferably in a workshop using a hand-operated printing press, the line is painted onto a plate after which it is transferred to the map.
angst
technique: frottage print and monotype
created: spring 2021
size: 57 X 75 cm
the first large, multi-coloured
frottage walk map I created,
'angst' holds documentation of
Hampstead Garden suburb's surfaces
and the walk as an unsettled black line.
earth day walk
technique: frottage print and monotype
created: spring 2021
size: 57 X 75 cm
reflecting the day this map was made,
'earth day walk' is composed of frottage prints from found objects and surfaces encountered in Hampstead Garden suburb,
with the walk added as a black line.
Henrietta
An artist's Map exploring the Hampstead Garden Suburb in North London and its founder, social reformer Henrietta Barnett. The map shows the artist's walks in the area, documentation of the surface using frottage print of the pavement, in addition to imprints of found objects categorised and added colour according to their position in a hierarchy of construction – from the organic to the artificial, or, from the ephemeral to the non-degradable. In the exhibition where Henrietta was showcased, the audience was encouraged to reposition the missing parts in order to reconstruct the image.
technique: monotype, frottage print, imprint and hand-stitching
created: spring 2021
size: 57 X 75 cm
outlining both my movement in the landscape and a portraial of a pioneer, 'Henrietta' invites the audience to actively unveil Hampstead Garden suburb's layers of constructions.
coastal map
'this bandstand'
technique: monotype, frottage print
and hand-stitching on paper
created: spring 2021
the coastal map channels the liberating feeling when a coast person is finally reunited with the coast after months in lockdown. Created on the Kent coast, during a return walk from Hythe to Folkestone, this multi-layered map holds memories and documentation of artwork encountered and the magic captured in a coastal sunset.
modern nature I, II, III & IIII
technique: frottage print, collagraph/
monotype on paper
created: summer 2021
size: 57 X 75 cm
The quadriptych modern nature seeks to investigate Derek Jarman’s connection
to Hampstead Heath while considering
a retrospective view from his
Prospect Cottage by the coast, towards
and into, the woods. Monoprints include imprints of a wooden plank, once attached to my cottage in Norway.
Photo: Clare Bowes
D, R, S & C
technique: monotype, frottage print and ink applied with a brayer
created: 2021
size: 57 X 75 cm (x4)
The quadriptych explores memorialisation and how we process memories, in this case, the memory of place with all its past and present movements. The four artist’s maps were created in response to walks in the landscape I once inhabited, on the western coast of Norway.
As seen in many of my maps, I am the line that moves across the surface of the folded paper and with these four walks, in particular, the return walk was equally important.
I documented surfaces connected to each of the map’s themes by rubbing and therefore, transferring their texture to the maps. The structure of e.g. an old cairn, a cholera graveyard and the ruin of what once was a home, all transferred into ghost prints. Carefully considered was also the reason why I can create this, and any artwork, as I was able to return. In commemoration of those who never returned.
Photo: Clare Bowes
'arches'
series of monoprints (2022-ongoing)
titles: tide, sjøkart,
flod, fjøra
techniques: monotype and imprint
on arches paper soaked in seawater
size: 25.5 x 28.5 cm
Together these artist's maps form part of the project Mapping Northumberland.
They were soaked in seawater during walks between Tynemouth and Seaton Sluice, seen in the process carousel below.
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mapping Northumberland
series of monoprints (2022)
titles: hydro, aln
techniques: monotype and imprint
on arches paper soaked in water
size: 25.5 x 28.5 cm
Two artist's maps from the project mapping Northumberland.
These two maps were soaked in water during walks in Cragside and Alnmouth respectively.
woodcut
title: Dover (2020)
technique/material: woodcut on Japanese paper
size: 9 x 13 cm
Inspired by a trip to the beautiful Kent coast and my first encounter with the stunning white cliffs of Dover,
this woodcut was selected to be part of the Teesside Print Prize exhibition in Middlesbrough 2020/21 and was one of 20 winners of the Network Rail competition 'Wish I Was There' and went on an exhibiting tour throughout the UK
title: us and them (2021)
technique/material: woodcut on paper
size: 21 x 70 cm
This woodcut is developed from a found object, a random plank from a Golders Green street. Overlooked, thrown away and discarded as something someone did not need. Found during a walk by someone who saw a useful item and made it into something valuable.
Us and them is inspired by the steadfast standing stones on the Outer Hebrides and tackles subjects such as prejudice, alienation and how we view others who are, but may not be perceived as, the same.
title: norwegian-ish (2020)
technique/material: woodcut and mokulito
on japanese paper
size: 20 x 28 cm
'Not everything is as it seems, and not everything that seems is. Between being and seeming there is always a point of agreement, as if being and seeming were two inclined planes that converge and become one. There is a slope and the possibility of sliding down that slope, and when that happens, one reaches a point at which being and seeming meet.'
– José Saramago
norwegian-ish is inspired by the (namesake) tv-series,
the 14th of October aka 'the winter day' which symbol is a mitten on the Norwegian Primstav, the eight-petal-rose pattern referred to in Norwegian as 'Selburose' or 'åttebladrose' and Arabic Kufic style calligraphy.
title: Gákti (2020)
(part of BA)
technique/material: two-layer reduction woodcut
on japanese paper
Gákti – inspired by the beauty and colours of the Sámi people,
in particular their national costume.
This print was created to mark the Sámi National Day.
this print resonates with a poem by Rolf Jacobsen
from his book 'Brev til lyset' (Letter to the Light)
– poetry (1960)
(translated by me)
Tett bak din fot / Close behind your foot
Close behind your foot, all silence is greatest,
and a strange tenderness is laid,
different from anything.
Different from anything you can hear, you can see
– the song from your shoes, the light of your hands.
Close behind your shoulder,
closer than anything you imagine,
a peace you have not known yourself,
where the world is silent, a deep, a steep second
that after an unprecedented promise
through a closed mouth.
title: Hjarte / Heart (2020)
(part of BA)
technique/material: woodcut on japanese paper
The heart-shaped mittens was originally created as an element for Sjømannskirken Aberdeen’s annual Christmas Fair.
The core of the church is community, where the heart plays a central role. Not only does it stand for compassion, but also the heart-shaped waffle, which is as symbolic as soup is for the Salvation Army.
project: Infographic (part of BA)
title: how it works (2019)
technique/material: woodcut on japanese paper
– inspired by the Vienna Method’s Isotype charts,
this woodcut has a combination of hand-carved (illustrations)
and laser-cut (typography) elements.
project: BA (Hons) Dissertation
'Building bridges in the periphery'
title: Jølster (2020)
technique/material: Reduction Woodcut on japanese paper
'Jølster' is a two-layer reduction woodcut based on an old map of the area Jølster where the Astrups lived and worked on a small croft.
It's an interpretation of the landscape that the two of them inhabited, a somewhat periphery, and what it meant to them.
project: BA (Hons) Dissertation
'Building bridges in the periphery'
title: Ode to E & N (2020)
technique/material: Woodcut on japanese paper
'Ode to E & N' is a creative timeline of the joint lives of Engel and Nikolai Astrup.
title: tre (2022)
technique/material: five-layer reduction woodcut
inspired by a walk from the ruin of my late grandparent's former home, 'tre' reflects the motif, the material used and the place itself while at the same time focusing on moving towards the light.
MA major project
's' (2021)
Image to the left
The theme of this specific map was shipwrecks along the part of the North Sea route which is located in Sveio, where I am from. Therefore, I did research on the 'Sleipner' shipwreck – which I remember very well – the story of Magnus Eriksson's wreck with 'Mariabollen' – which is connected to 'Kongsvarden' the king's cairn – and 'DS Thor' which sank outside of Lyngholm. Each mapping process is never quite the same, but the common denominator is that I walk the specific landscape while I track my movements digitally. The red line in S is my movement, with the starting point being Ryvarden Lighthouse and further north towards Lyngholm. I both followed and did not follow the trail, and let the landscape lead the way rather than being a leader for the route. I documented the hard surfaces of stones and hills by letting a white pencil contour the beautiful structures without leaving any colours. Prior to the walk, I had coated the maps with layers of blue, each of the four maps with its dedicated shade: prussian, cyan, phthalo and ultramarine. 'S' is phthalo. The coating process involved a brayer, a printmaker's tool used for rolling out ink, typically on a glass plate in order to ink up e.g. a relief print block. In this process, I rolled directly onto the large Arches printmaking paper. Line by line, layer by layer, slowly building the horizon – the seascape.
I finalised the maps in London. By adding the red line on top of the blue and the white, they are reunited – the walk, the view and the landscape.
'S' has been exhibited as seen here at the MA show in north London, in addition to Kingshill house in the Cotswolds and at my solo show at KFUK-hjemmet in London.
images above: W. Gillingham-Sutton
images below: Å. Vikse
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My MA major project consisted of two parts which involved a physical exhibition, and a written part. The dissertation 'Return to ruin' discuss the main topic of memorialisation by debating themes such as objects and our relationships to them, place and space in relation to sharing, trauma, and pilgrimage.
If you would like more information, feel free to get in touch.
BA major project
My BA major project (Honours project)
was a series of prints inspired by the stories told by Norwegian author Edvard Hoem. Through five books we journey with his ancestors through the landscape of Romsdalen and over to the new world, the prairies of America and Canada where they seek a better life.
These stories became of great importance to me,
after I had left Norway for Scotland in 2015.
Created during spring 2020, these prints will always define my memories of the UK lockdown.
monoprint
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title: huset på Kringsjå (2022-23)
variations
technique: monoprint on handmade paper
including woodcut, collagraph/imprint, monotype and hand-colouring
size: 23 x 33 cm
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title: fjør (2021)
technique: monoprint – imprint of found object (feathers) on various paper
size: various, from small cards to A2+
title: constructions (2021)
technique: collagraph/imprint of found object
size: 21 x 26 cm
interpretations of the landscape as constructions of layers.
Each layer in these Monoprints represents a specific type of construction, from the natural to the human-made.
The layers are imprints of found objects collected during my walks.
My interpretation of the landscape I walk in,
observations while being present.
Being present while being active.
The landscape interpreted in constructions and movement
is Hampstead Garden Suburb in north London,
once dubbed a social and architectural experiment.
The place where all my first term MA projects evolved around.
The observations were made while walking within its streets and parks – constructions and movement, interwoven with past and present.
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monoprints 'movement' in hampstead garden suburb
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monoprints 'movement' in hampstead garden suburb
title: movement (2021)
technique: collagraph/imprint of found object
size: 20 X 26 cm
The title of this series of prints
invites ambiguous interpretations.
First and foremost I see it as the movement
created by anything and anyone that is empowered to create movement, in this case, movement can mean both physical activity and the process of social development.
However, although these represent tangible and non-tangible activities, they both represent a process
potentially leading to a change of view.
threedimentional
title: tokens of hgs
created: 2023
technique/material: imprint, paper clay
A three-dimensional composition, an assemblage of clay tokens. Imprints of found objects – memories of a myriad of walks in and around Hampstead Garden Suburb. Resembling leaves in a wreath – these are casts of feathers.
The tokens are placed in another found object, a golden frame from Golders Green.
project: memorialisation
title: the sixteen
created: 2021 (part of MA major project)
technique/material: ceramics
imprint in clay
The Sixteen are 16 clay vessels with imprints on their inner walls. 16 individual cylinders invite you to view through them, in order to obtain an optimised view of the story they collectively tell. Pierced holes in the walls shine a light on the view. Enclosed are traces of ephemeral, organic objects. Placed in wet clay, they vanished in the firing process and transformed into mere ghost prints of something that once inhabited a landscape. 16 was a recurring number in my MA major project where I investigated memorialisation. I used walking and found objects, translated to the language of print, to share stories. Emphasising the nature of the circular, walks became commemorative impressions in the landscape I walked and later, imprints in my artwork. The imprints in the vessels were found objects from a return walk from Ryvarden Lighthouse and commemorate the sixteen who in November 1999 never returned.
The Sixteen was selected for the Anxiety of interdisciplinarity exhibition, part of IMPACT 12 International Printmaking Conference in Bristol 2022
project: hold on to
created: 2020 (part of BA)
technique/material: imprint in paper clay
pioneer women
For international women’s day 2020 I created the first portrait
of a series of pioneer women.
This will be an annual celebration of female trailblazers.
Someone always has to pave the path for others to follow,
and in this series of portrayals, I wish to highlight these
more or less famous women.
title: Lilla
created: for international women's day 2020
technique: two-layer reduction woodcut on japanese paper
size: 11,5 x 15,5 cm
Portrait of Norwegian architect Lilla Hansen,
the first woman in Norway to establish her own practice.
Amongst Lilla’s first works as an independent architect,
was the Norawegian ‘hytte’ – a wooden cottage.
This two-layer portrait is carved into an old weathered
wooden plank retrieved from my own hytte in Norway
to emphasise the connection between the two.
project: #projecthenriettabarnett
created: for international women's day 2021
technique: various
The second pioneer I chose to highlight was the founder
of Hampstead Garden Suburb in London, Henrietta Barnett(1851-1936).
After I researched this fascinating North London suburb
it became clear that the second portrait of a pioneer woman
had to be its founder, Henrietta Barnett.
So much more than a suburb’s founder, Henrietta was
a social campaigner and worked to enhance the lives
of the less privileged, mainly in Whitechapel.
When the Northern Line was extended to the Hampstead
and Golders Green area she also extended her social work.
As a result of that, Hampstead Garden Suburb has been dubbed
a social and architectural experiment.
title: henrietta barnett walk
created: 2021
technique: monotype on paper
title: henrietta
created: spring 2021
technique: monotype, frottage print,
collagraph and hand-stitching
size: 57 X 75 cm
outlining both my movement in the landscape
and a portraial of a pioneer in her field, 'henrietta' invites the audience to actively unveil the suburb's layers of constructions.
project: pioneer woman 2022, Anni Albers
created: for international women's day 2022
technique: a combination of woodcut and gelli print
The third pioneer I chose to portray was the weaver
– the artist – Anni Albers (1899-1994)
In 2018, during my BA Communication Design studies, I wrote an essay with the title 'Always artistic, never artists', with a focus on Anni Albers and her Bauhaus career.
The broader subject of the essay was the many female students at the then modern
and innovative art school in Germany, who were never acknowledged as artists
but instead placed in the craft workshops. The men, on the other hand, were welcomed
to the art studios and thus became artists. Although this subject problematises themes such as equality and art versus craft, it raises questions that I recognise from my research on Hampstead Garden Suburb's former days, where people from different backgrounds were being introduced into the same residential area. The aim may have been to merge these despite disparate situations, but what differed was the opportunities they arrive with.
It became a matter of place versus placed.
title: anni albers (2022)
technique: woodcut and gelli print on German Büttenpapier
size: A4
pioneer woman 2023, Ellen Wilkinson
project: mapping ellen
artist'map in four squares, discussing and exploring four eras of Ellen's life
work in progress
installation
project: memorialisation
title: Shelter
created: 2021 (part of MA major project)
installation components include: a triangular tent, a crate, a video/audio composition, sixteen ceramic vessels and dyed fabric
materials used: unbleached cotton fabric, found objects, clay, found tree branches, wooden dowels, nails, wire, monitor w/tech equipment
size: approx. 200 x 160 x 180 cm
‘Shelter’ is an installation comprising an amalgamation of craft and technology. Components include a triangular tent, a crate, a video/audio composition, sixteen ceramic vessels and dyed fabric. The installation’s purpose is to offer shelter and welcome the audience on a walk.
View 'Shelter' on vimeo: https://vimeo.com/716767516
title: Vikse Vitrine
created: 2021 (part of MA interim exhibition)
materials: found objects, ikea frames
a small collection of ordinary objects from my walks in and around Hampstead Garden Suburb
'Cabinets of curiosities, also known as ‘wonder rooms’, were small collections of extraordinary objects which, like today’s museums, attempted to categorise and tell stories about the wonders and oddities of the natural world.'
(Source: British Library)
portrait
title: Berit
created: 2020
technique: five-layer reduction woodcut
size: 19 x 19 cm
A portrait of my paternal grandmother,
Berit Olava Nielsen (married Vikse) aged 12 years old.
Based on a photograph dated 1938.
title: Johan
created: 2020
technique: four-layer reduction woodcut
size: 20 x 29 cm
A portrait of my maternal grandfather,
Johan Knutsen.
Based on a photograph, not dated.
title: Lockgown (self-portrait)
created: autumn 2020
technique: woodcut on paper
In late summer 2020 I noticed an open call
from The Artist Pool, titled 'The Resilient Self II'.
It was the theme and the description that made me decide to enter with a woodcut I created specifically for this call. It read:
It’s one thing to present your art honestly to the world,
it’s quite another to turn that gaze on yourself.
We live in the age of the 'selfie', where reality can be pushed through endless filters until every hint of vulnerability is erased. In this show, all filters are removed as each artist presents an artwork that gives
the viewer a glimpse of their authentic self.
We’ve had to spend time with ourselves during lockdown, being in one space for a long period of time, forcing us to self reflect, to uncover, discover and explore
new ways of expressing ourselves.
This exhibition is about the Self, The Resilient Self.
‘Lockgown’ depicts me on my graduation day.
The day was not as I had anticipated and therefore followed the template set by 2020 – the year where nothing went as planned. However, that doesn’t mean
it was a bad day because I had the opportunity to
invent it as I wanted to.
The same as with my Honours project.
If creating a BA major project in lockdown taught me anything, it was the importance of DIY, and so I continued that mentality on my graduation day.
Depicted in this print is the graduate. But what the woodcut doesn’t reveal is that the hat is made out
of cardboard and the cape is a part of my national costume. The paper I’m holding may not be a certificate
– it could be an endless list of the cooking and baking
I did, recipes I created, or a map showing all the wanders around Aberdeen, all during lockdown.
But it is my certificate, I am proud, I am wearing the cape that my mother once made for me, and at the end of the day, I was the only one who could DIY.
'Lockgown' was selected to be part of the group exhibition 'The Resilient Self II', held at espacio gallery in London's Shoreditch, autumn 2020.
More portraits in Drawings
