Blå and Pust (Breath), or my first piece of purchased art :-)

Blå (Blue) is a weird place. On an ordinary weekday and Saturday its a shabby bar playing live jazz and rock, very popular with fans of underground and indie music. Come Sunday though, and this peculiar mix of brick, graffiti and metal transforms into a bustling marketplace for up and coming designers and painters. They also sell hand-me-downs and antiques.  Definitely worth a look if you ever happen to be in Oslo on a Sunday and all the popular tourist attractions have already been seen. Having said that, however, I don't think this place will ever become popular for Oslo's transient international tourists. But then again, I wouldn't have it that way either. Blå is quite a "Norwegian" venue if you know what I mean.

What always amazes me with Blå is the artwork hanging about (literally). There always seems to be an installation in every nook and cranny, be it a huge one like this tree goddess thing (rather creepy if you ask me), or some crude piece of metal pounded into something to discern something else. I like Blå because its "raw", totally lacking refinement, but beautiful because of its unpolished nature. Sometimes things are better left as they are. There is something rather poetic in crudeness. And Blå is, for me, Oslo's culmination of this crudeness, this barbarity. Even the smell of the Sunday market as you enter is crude (like unrefined textile or an unwashed favorite shirt).  And no, this hanging tree goddess was not the first piece of artwork that I purchased.

On the second floor of the Sunday market, right where that humongous chandelier is hanging (see the first picture) was an art exhibition entitled "As We Grow". I guess the title because all the artists involved are up and coming ones. I got attracted to this piece of artwork (or mesmerized because I stared at it for so long). It's called "Pust" (which is Norwegian for breath (noun) and breathe), made by artist Karoline Sæther. Not long after I was talking to the gallery attendants and placed a bid. An hour after that I got a call from the artist accepting it. So hurray for the first piece of art that I purchased all by myself!

I still really haven't figured out what in this piece of artwork that compelled me, and what made me decide that I want to have it. It speaks to me, yes, but what is it trying to say. Are those leaves, or feathers? Is the man (or woman) in the picture breathing out green leaves of new beginnings, or dead leaves from a painful past? And they eyes, sad and weary, like my own.

Anyway I cannot wait to finally get this painting out of the gallery and into my own living room. Then I can look at it some more, and figure out how this piece of art reflects the way my life is right now. Some might say that art is just ink splattered in a canvas, or wood carved out from something the artist has visualized. But we all are connected. And another person's artwork can also be a reflection of how we see ourselves, and how we live our lives.