SMACK BOOM WHAM

Public installation within the Cicignon School, Fredrikstad, Norway. Approx. 10 m x 3 m x 2 m. Aluminium and photofoil. 2009
The piece is mounted in a public entrance, recreational area in the atrium in the renovated but historic Cicignon School in Fredrikstad. The school has pupils from age 6 to 15. My commission was to attempt making a work for the most public interior area of the school. The kids use it for breaks, to hang out, store their personal items and when passing through on the way to class rooms in that part of the school. The teachers or other employees use it in a similar manner. At night this atrium is often used for concerts and theatre plays and one side of the room contains a large stage. My work consists of an photo-foil on top of an architectonic form with an interplay of angles breaking up depth and perspective of the form. This is placed on top of a intruding box in this public area of the school. The photographic print shows a girl sitting inside a continuously turning and fracturing fabric. This fabric has imprinted expressive words from cartoons, e.g. smack, boom, wham etc. This popular cultural form of expression is both funny and expressive for both the younger and older kids of the school. The colours, the graphical elements, the face of the girl and the architectonic forms together create a formal play which gives energy and a difference of experience in this common area of the school