Nina Björkendal

Nina Björkendal (SWE/NO) is a printmaker working mainly with woodcut, but also photography-based techniques. Björkendal is based in the south of Norway and teaches at the University of Agder in Kristiansand as an associate professor in printmaking and woodwork. She is a member of several cross disciplinary research groups relating to feminism, modernism, nature, and sustainability.

Björkendal holds a Bachelor degree from the Collage of Art and printmaking in Bergen (KHiB) and the an MFA from the Collage of Art and printmaking in Oslo (KHiO). Her work has been exhibited across Norway and beyond its borders. She has received a number of prizes and recognition within the professional art community in Norway.

Bjørkendal´s work encompasses photography, printmaking, and the exploration of archives, categorization, language, and systems. Bjørkendal often sources materials from places such as the everyday, nature, community workshops, books, and digital archives. These materials are processed through a technical and media-driven approach. The artist maintains a personal archive of shapes, texts, words, signs, objects, and materials, ready to be reimagined and used in new contexts. Bjørkendal seeks forms and objects capable of shifting meanings across different scenarios, with much of her work process focused on observing, comparing, and categorizing.

The work emphasizes the everyday, contrasting the mundane with ritualistic elements and hidden knowledge. A crucial aspect of Bjørkendal’s work involves transforming a transient quality into tangible and concrete forms. Playfulness frequently plays a role in her work, often juxtaposing rationality against chance and unpredictability.

SKU: nina.bjorkendal@gmail.com Category: Onboards_25

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This photograph is part of a documentation project where I explore unstable and changing factors in nature. The project began during my time living on a farm in Hardanger, on the west coast of Norway. In the 1800s, a farmer and self-proclaimed natural scientist lived there; he collected and cataloged lichens and mosses, which inspired me to place myself in a similar natural scientific context. This project became the first of a series whereby I documented fundamental natural forces such as decomposition, growth, wind, water currents, and light. I placed everyday objects in the seemingly untamable nature. The objects are not scientifically objective but evoke deeply subjective situations. Absurdity and uncertainty emerge, hopefully presenting the viewer with a puzzle to solve. – Safety versus uncertainty. The intention is to play on what we can or want to know in relation to unpredictability and unstable forces as emotions and chance. The title of the entire series is drawn from Carl von Linné’s monumental work on biological systematics from 1735.

The work is grounded in a positive ecosophical view of nature: a perspective that recognizes nature as a powerful and transcending force with which humans must engage. I regard nature as my collaborative partner within this project. The work has been part of an ongoing documentation project since 2010.

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