KARINA NØKLEBY PRESTTUN (b. 1981). Norwegian artist. Lives and works in Bergen, Norway, with textiles as a main material.

CURRENT PROJECT

In 2010 I started a project to make portraits of selected male friends. The premise of the project is that the participants can stage themself however they want, but they have to wear a dress. Some of the boys them have strong opinions how to look and what to do – others have not. I try to change my way of working to make each piece uniqe enough to voice their different personalities.

After finding the right outfit (which is not always as easy as you might think) and several photo sessions I choose one picture of each of them that I then make into a big format textile collage. The pieces of the collage are cut out on a laser cutter and then put together. It’s time consuming: each piece takes from four to six months.

So far I have made the pieces “Jørund”, “Lars-Magnus”, “Molotov-coktail”, “The Fabulous Hunter” and in addition the smaller “Trying to patch you up”.

Currently, I’m working on the last pieces in this series. For that, Norwegian writer Tomas Espedal has agreed to let me make a portrait of him. The pieces I produce based on the pictures of him will be exhibited at Soft Gallery in Oslo, September 12th – October 13th 2013.