Ragnhild Aamås
“Time and again I have found myself in position of space, time or knowledge that I could share and nurture other people with. Be it a healthy-sized studio, a grant or other. Sometimes by skill, other times curiosity or fortune placed me there. In a field of working where institutions are highly non-formalised and itinerant, there is a desire for some type of structure, perhaps not more complex than meeting once every other week to share a meal and discuss a text too early in the morning. In it there is also an understanding that this so-called fortune is not a boon (god given gift), but is coming out of the hard work of several generations of artists before me, developing and refining the structures conditioning the living, work and income-expectations for artists in Norway, setting up platforms for collaborations and belonging. Although I know very well that this is probably some Kantian influenced protestant ethics of debts and rituals of downpayment, yet I very much feel obliged to contribute when and where I can.”
Ragnhild Aamås (b. 1984, Volda) lives and works in Oslo. Aamås is educated at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design (London), the University of Oslo and the Academy of Fine Art at the Oslo Academy of the Arts (Khio).
Together with Ayat Tuleubek and Ignas Krunglevicius she reimagined the artist run exhibition space Podium Oslo in 2015. Aamås recently presented the solo exhibition “flow; or memories of a traveling mountain ape” at the KUBE Art Museum in Ålesund (VU18), and partook in group exhibitions at Kunstnernes Hus, “Vis meg din hage" at Kunstnerforbundet, and gave a performance lecture on Mary Wollstonecraft’s “Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark” (1796) at Monnaie de Paris with Nordic Art Press. She is currently working on a collection of her written notes for reading, and recording of a new three-part piece on ethics, protection and self-easing.
Ragnhild Aamås has initiated and run reading groups since 2012, and held various offices in the artist associations UKS (Young Artists Society), NBK (the Norwegian Artist Union) and BOA (the association of visual artist in Oslo and Akershus county). A board member of U.F.O. — an exhibition guide for Oslo. In 2015 she reimagined and rebuilt the artist run exhibition and project space Podium together with Ayat Tuleubek and Ignas Krunglevicius. The exhibition and lecture programme at Podium has aimed at capturing the mood and spirit of the Oslo art scene, mainly consisting in solo presentations by emerging artists based in Norway, interspersed by some group-shows and a series of discursive events: talks, round tables and reading groups. The selection of artists is based on their daring to create spearheading contexts that aim to challenge the potential audiences to rethink their views on society, aesthetics and art.