An art installation: AltErEtt... AltErEgo

AltErEtt or AltErEgo, February-March 2014, 

an installation, in Evangerista kunst -og kulturhus.

 

The name of the artist: Mona Nordaas:  http://www.evangerista.no/hjem

In memoriam: Mona Nordaas (1958-2016)

Evanger, a tiny village in Norway, is home to Norwegian artist Mona Nordaas, who makes colourful installations from materials and objects that have been thrown out as garbage. Putting together things that are damaged, ugly, or no longer modern or useful, she creates art which is both pleasing and intriguing, beautiful and thought-provoking.

This text is a rewrite of two essays which I wrote about Mona’s work in 2014, as submissions for the Coursera course "Live!: A History of Art for Artists, Animators and Gamers".

Foto: Mona Nordaas

Mona’s combined café and art gallery, Evangerista kunst -og kulturhus, is pleasant, with a warm, quiet atmosphere. If music is playing, it is relaxing, rhythmic, and soft enough to allow conversation and reflection. The room is furnished with tables and chairs in different colours and materials, an old piano, a large, old-fashioned cafe counter, and a bright red sofa which divides the space. Entering the bathroom, you find yourself in yet another world, painted in glowing shades of blue, green and turquoise, and inhabited by numerous unwanted toy dinosaurs of every shape, size and colour. 

At the far end of the café, flimsy curtains on either side of a small stage are pulled open, to reveal AltErEtt, or AltErEgo, the installation on which Mona is currently working. In Norwegian, the names AltErEtt and AltErEgo play on the words of which they are made up, forming a deliberate quadruple meaning: Alter-et means the altar, while alt-er-ett means all is one. Alter ego can also be read as alt-er-ego – all is ego. 

The installation stands tall on the small stage, functioning simultaneously as an altar and a representation of a person, bearing within itself countless large and small elements: a Buddha; embellishments and ornaments; a tray holding tiny cups; a harlequin; a marionette; orderly and complex collections of objects, mirrors, lights... 

Every surface holds small objects that could fall at the slightest push, just as we present an attractive, but fragile, outer layer, protecting our inner vulnerability. The Buddha sits at the back, centred within a flimsy body with limbs on either side. Near the front, the tray and the tiny cups signal a readiness to serve and share. In front of the Buddha, the harlequin looks out, ready for mischief. A marionette leaps from the top – strings pulled from within or from without? 

Foto: Mona Nordaas

To me, the presence of both contemplative and mischievous figures, the collections of objects in warm colours on one side and cold colours on the other side, and the partly covered mirrors at the back, reminiscent of yin-yang symbols, simultaneously symbolize balance and complexity. 

Bathing in the gentle hustle and bustle of the café, I reflect... Do we view all existence as one? Do we see all as part of our-selves? Are these views mutually exclusive? If all is one, why are we so wasteful? Ultimately, do we choose who and what we are? It is interesting to consider this work as an allegory of contemporary times, as it has so many layers, possible interpretations, and points of entry.

In the simple act of reusing throw-away objects, the work has an intended meaning in the form of an overt political message about waste and materialism; an undisguised critique of the pervasive throw-away culture of overconsumerism in which we all take part. On other levels this work acts as an allegory of contemporary times in the way it reveals hidden meanings related to life, identity and human complexity; it can be seen down-up or up-down, and we can approach it from many different angles. 

Foto: Mona Nordaas

On a superficial level, like AltErEtt or AltErEgo, each one of us makes up a whole, appearing as a more or less coherent entity. Yet, in the deeper layers of our being, we are made up of distinct, yet indivisible, yet contradictory elements; we are simultaneously selfish and selfless, good and bad, constructive and destructive. Each of us embodies femininity and masculinity, optimism and pessimism, harmony and disharmony. AltErEtt or AltErEgo can be seen as a beautiful and expressive manifestation of the many facets of human nature; even elements that are unattractive, perhaps even ugly, contribute to the beauty of the finished work. 

In particular, though, AltErEtt or AltErEgo reminds us of our mortality. Like the discarded artefacts that make up the work - and like the work created from these artefacts - each one of us will one day cease to be an entity, and all that we once were will fall apart. If we are unable to stop waste and over-consumption, even the beautiful and vulnerable world which we now inhabit may one day be only a memory - to be remembered by whom? 

To return to the name AltErEtt or AltErEgo, the work functions as an altar - for the worship of what or whom? There is a Buddha hidden deep in the core of the structure, but also an angel, mirrors, a glass sphere - a crystal ball...?  Which aspects of self make up our ego? Do we all sometimes – or always – have one or more alter egos? Are our individual selves parts of a greater one? Is every being part of a one, part of a whole - which in turn is a sum of its elements? How do we reconcile all is one, all is ego, alter ego – with the worship of an other which is implied by the presence of an altar?

AltErEtt/AltErEgo is quite a large installation; the combination of a very small child and an extremely complex, flimsy and breakable construction is not to be recommended - thankfully, on this particular occasion disaster was avoided... :)