Series of performative self-portraits “Mørketid” is a multi-layered project created as a result of synthesis between performance art and photography. It is focused on intimate and personal experience of illness – depression is both the catalyst of the works of art and the leading motif of the artistic strategy. The title of the project is “Mørketid”, which in Norwegian language means the ‘polar night’. It consists of two words: ‘mørk’ – dark and ‘tid’ – time, literally translating – the ‘dark time’. The title bears a direct reference to the North of Norway, where I had the first autobiographical impulses to create the series, as well as a metaphor for the experience of physical and emotional darkness.

The photo exhibition was opened with a performance, in which visualizing the cyclical nature of depression, I washed my head in cold water for two hours, referring to the period in history when mental health problems were treated with cold showers.

Photo series Mørketid can be seen here.