New creatures: Nighttime Norse Nasties

Collective Locality: Charm and Disfunction Exhbition this Saturday.

Helle.

Today we visited the Helle Knife factory, a gorgeous little deco factory on the fjord that hand produces knives and cutlery:

http://helle.com/



At first I thought 'knife factory? Intense', but then here in Norway there is a tradition of people carrying knives with them. They even make knives for Girl Guides:



Sadly their once domination of the knifey world had shrunk so now their workforce consist of half a dozen grizzly old men with amazing craftsmanship skills. The factory itself is like a trip back in time, wonderful old machines with huge cogs and wheels. The handle room, where the knife handles are carved from wood, primarily birch, smelled absolutely incredible.

Website re-launch.

Hello all,

I have just re-launched my website. It is still a work in progress (I'm still editing the Liverpool film footage, apologies to my gorgeous monster dancers to whom I owe a show reel)but at least now looks less like a high school IT project.

Check it out yo!

www.catherinebourne.com

nkd, and it's already March!

I can't believe we've already been here in Dale for a month!

The nkd centre is amazing, orginally set up for wood-based sculpture practice it has an incredibly well-appointed wood working room, a great little darkroom (Darn has burrowed in, only occasionally surfacing for fresh air)and huge, light filled studios with snowy views over the town and fjord.



I have been working on more portraits for my ongoing Inhabitants series, as well as working again with material-based sculpture (creating faux-mythological creatures out of found materials and shooting them in situ.



Tomorrow I head down to Transplant to spend time in their Materials Library as part of my residency. It's extraordinary that such a tiny twon would have both the nkd art centre and a design/architecture centre like Transplant!

http://www.nkdale.no/
http://www.transplant.nu/

And off to Norway!

The NORDIC ARTISTS' CENTRE DALSÅSEN to be precise... and what a gorgeous center it is. Jasmina, the residency co-ordinator has been incredibly helpful with all of my queries about bringing toxic photogrpahic chemicals into their pristine fjord. We fly out on Monday, how exciting.

Bang Bang, Shoot Shoot.

So the big shoot is upon us. Over two days I've been having lights delivered, constructing a set, having dancers arrive and shooting on 8mm, 16mm, a RED camera and of course as much 110 and 120 as I can fit in.

I cannot wait to see the results, working in collaboration with the dancers to explore the theme of the bodily grotesque has been fantastic, in line with my research into grotesque physicality in the arts as part of my studies with Monash.





A big thanks to Darn Thorn, my Director of Photographer and general collaborator-in-crime and STATIC for allowing me to take over the venue for a few days.

*Please note this post has done a little time travel... it's been a hectic few months!*