A note on Helle Kvamme’s Utmarken.

The forest of the Utmarken (the outland) is Helle Kvamme’s studio-workshop from which her work projects has emerged. Here, amongst the oaks and hazel trees, branches are redirected, nests and hearths made by Helle and her collaborators to suddenly emerge from within the forests’ dense undergrowth. We can follow the pathways through the brambles and hazelnut bushes. Each of Helle Kvamme’s interventions in the Utmarken are unique. But underpinning all the work is an astute sense of the architecture of nature. There is a temple, an architectural place - an ur-form for architecture - in the very fabric of the Utmarken which inscribes nature in historical time. A philosophy of ecology here becomes apparent. In the middle of the forest, a clearing is made. Under the overarching branches of the trees and bushes, a small platform is laid out like a stage for a play or a performance. It is the mis-en-scen for a dialogue with place, time and history. The Dead Wood Dance is Helle Kvamme’s project from 2021-22. Dead wood is the sedimentation of wood that has ‘died’ by falling to the floor of the forest. Dead wood provides the forest floor with sustenance and creates tunnels of communication (natural media) for insects and other species. This dead wood is a ‘subject of substance’ for Helle Kvamme in recognition of Spinoza. It becomes something other; the dance teacher muse to whom she writes plaintiff poems that are really questions about the possibility of life ethical in harmony with the world.

Text by: Dr. Ed B Whittaker, 2022