Rv. 555 Sotrasambandet
Acrylic on transparent, mostly recycled panels
Acrylic on transparent, mostly recycled panels
Beneath the surface of progress lies a tension between order and chaos, between human ambition and the living systems it reshapes.
The series invites reflection on how infrastructure, economy, and ecology are woven together — revealing both the power and the fragility of the world we build.
The series invites reflection on how infrastructure, economy, and ecology are woven together — revealing both the power and the fragility of the world we build.
images from the exhibition Imagine New Stories, Write New Rules curated by Monica Holmen and Jessica Williams at Nitja senter for contemporary art from 17.January to the 1 of Marsh 2026.
Foto Tor Simen Ulstein
Foto Tor Simen Ulstein
gitte sætre, 2025
118 x 74 cm
Gitte Sætre
100 cm x 74 cm
gitte sætre, 2025
120 cm x 80 cm
gitte sætre, 2025
118 cm x 74 cm
gitte sætre
118 cm x74 cm
gitte sætre
118 cm x 74 cm
Et landskap i arbeid( 2026)
(etter I.C Dahl maleri Stugunøset på Filefjeld ,1851)
400 × 350 cm
Painting on reused translucent tarpaulin
The painting is made on a reused, translucent tarpaulin, stretched between the floor and the ceiling, allowing the viewer to move around the work and experience it from both sides. In my reworking of Stugunøset at Filefjeld, five men in workwear move across the mountain as they prepare for blasting. Their presence shifts the landscape away from a National Romantic ideal of the untouched and timeless, toward a place marked by labour, intervention, and human action. What appears monumental and unspoiled in Johan Christian Dahl’s painting becomes here an active field of work — a landscape in transformation. Though small in scale, the figures mark a decisive rupture: nature is no longer merely observed, but acted upon. The work is lit so that it casts a distinct shadow onto the wall, forming a secondary image. This shadow functions as a fragile reflection in which contours dissolve and the motif becomes less concrete. It can be read as a memory in the making — an image of nature as it is remembered, or will be remembered. In this way, the painting expands from a depiction of a specific place into a reflection on time, loss, and transformation. Reference: Stugunøset at Filefjeld (1851). Stugunøset at Filefjeld is a celebrated National Romantic oil painting from 1851 by Johan Christian Dahl, held in the Nasjonalmuseet collection.
Measuring 67 × 89.5 cm, the work depicts Mount Støgonøse (1,433 m above sea level) in Valdres, based on sketches from the artist’s final journey to the area in 1850. The painting is known for its dramatic use of light and its monumental mountain landscape. Key details: Artist: Johan Christian Dahl (1788–1857). Year: 1851. Motif: Mount Støgonøse at Filefjell, viewed from north of Lake Otrøvatnet toward Suletind. Style: National Romanticism. History: Painted when Dahl was 62 after a physically demanding journey; sold to the Christiania Art Society in 1852, later donated to the National Gallery in 1901. Cultural legacy: Featured on a Norwegian postage stamp in 1976
(etter I.C Dahl maleri Stugunøset på Filefjeld ,1851)
400 × 350 cm
Painting on reused translucent tarpaulin
The painting is made on a reused, translucent tarpaulin, stretched between the floor and the ceiling, allowing the viewer to move around the work and experience it from both sides. In my reworking of Stugunøset at Filefjeld, five men in workwear move across the mountain as they prepare for blasting. Their presence shifts the landscape away from a National Romantic ideal of the untouched and timeless, toward a place marked by labour, intervention, and human action. What appears monumental and unspoiled in Johan Christian Dahl’s painting becomes here an active field of work — a landscape in transformation. Though small in scale, the figures mark a decisive rupture: nature is no longer merely observed, but acted upon. The work is lit so that it casts a distinct shadow onto the wall, forming a secondary image. This shadow functions as a fragile reflection in which contours dissolve and the motif becomes less concrete. It can be read as a memory in the making — an image of nature as it is remembered, or will be remembered. In this way, the painting expands from a depiction of a specific place into a reflection on time, loss, and transformation. Reference: Stugunøset at Filefjeld (1851). Stugunøset at Filefjeld is a celebrated National Romantic oil painting from 1851 by Johan Christian Dahl, held in the Nasjonalmuseet collection.
Measuring 67 × 89.5 cm, the work depicts Mount Støgonøse (1,433 m above sea level) in Valdres, based on sketches from the artist’s final journey to the area in 1850. The painting is known for its dramatic use of light and its monumental mountain landscape. Key details: Artist: Johan Christian Dahl (1788–1857). Year: 1851. Motif: Mount Støgonøse at Filefjell, viewed from north of Lake Otrøvatnet toward Suletind. Style: National Romanticism. History: Painted when Dahl was 62 after a physically demanding journey; sold to the Christiania Art Society in 1852, later donated to the National Gallery in 1901. Cultural legacy: Featured on a Norwegian postage stamp in 1976
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5 x 30 cm x 42 cm 33cc cm x 42
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2 x 30 cm x 40 cm
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Rv. 555 Sotrasambandet Paintings offer more than an aesthetic experience; they tell us something about how our surroundings have been perceived. You might think that Norwegians care for their nature, yet in the past five years alone, 44,000 natural sites have been altered for roads, housing, sports arenas, shopping centers, and aquaculture facilities. According to an NRK investigation, the country is losing 79 square meters of nature—every minute. Throughout history, artists have been fascinated by nature, depicting it—soberly or sublimely. The Rv. 555 Sotrasambandet painting series captures the dramatic transformation of Norway’s landscape through the construction of a 9.4-kilometer highway—4.6 kilometers of it through tunnels—connecting the oil and gas facilities at Kolltveit in Øygarden to Storavatnet in Bergen. Designed to accommodate industrial transport, oil, gas, and a new port to receive minerals from deep-sea mining—as well as a growing commuter population, including a planned coastal town of 10,000 residents—this project aims to reduce rush-hour travel by up to 20 minutes. It includes a new 900-meter, four-lane bridge with pedestrian and cycling lanes. With a total budget of NOK 23.1 billion (as of 2022), it stands as the largest single contract ever awarded by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. Through a series of paintings, Rv. 555 Sotrasambandet documents this massive infrastructure development. Visually striking and emotionally resonant, the works follow the phases of construction: earth torn open, mountains drilled and blasted, asphalt poured, bridges erected, stones hauled, and waters displaced—while nature attempts to recover. Plants and animals tentatively return, reclaiming fragments of their disrupted habitats. Beneath reason and territorial definitions lies a fertile chaos—a field of forces from which every system of order emerges. Infrastructure is one expression of this will to order. The Sotrasambandet transforms landscape into logistics, weaving itself into the everyday circulation of people, goods, and capital. Its bridges and tunnels are both technological and symbolic—a material narrative of progress, connectivity, and control. Yet every act of order carries a trace of violence. Wetlands are drained, habitats displaced, and light and noise reshape the rhythms of other species. The project mirrors a wider global logic: the merging of economy, technology, and ecology into a single system that sustains and destabilizes life at once. Sotrasambandet is thus not only an infrastructure project, but an ecological and cultural event—a manifestation of how human order continuously reorganizes the living world. This project is done in a sort of collaboration with Guttorm Glomsås, he has a parallell foto project of Sotrasambandet rv 555. Link to his project her |
2x 78 cm x 52 cm