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Jorunn Mulen is a painter living and working in Bergen, Norway. With a MA in Illustration & Authorial Practice from Falmouth College of Art, UK, Jorunn's visual narratives are concerned with persona and the complex stories, secrets and histories that manifest on the surface. Showing her work in London, LA, Tokyo and across Italy, Jorunn has received worldwide recognition for her alluring portraiture. To learn more about her artistic practice and the inspiration behind her work, I asked her the following questions.......

Roddy MacNeill presents 'Blemish' a solo exhibition of art, which he made almost exclusively while in lockdown. Enlightened by his time spent outdoors, examining patterns and textures found in both nature and the urban environment, Roddy's mixed-media works reveal a new heightened awareness of his surroundings. Interested in the visible affects of time, using a range of materials and methods, Roddy replicates weathered surfaces like rusty metal, peeling paint, and sun-bleached wood.

Set against the landscape of today, Sarah Randles's visual language captures the stereotypes and social norms that, despite centuries of progress, still exist. Choosing collage or photo-montage as her primary discipline, Sarah appropriates imagery from throughout history to make a spectacle of these arbitrary ideas, and by doing so, offers a new space for understanding and reimagining.

Eager to learn more about her weird and wonderful compositions, we invited Sarah to partake in a virtual interview. Here's how it went.

 

I understand that I will never understand, however, I stand. I repeat this statement almost like a mantra over and over. While watching the horrifying news reports of George Floyd’s death, while scrolling through social media feeds tracking the developments of the protests or outpourings of grief and love, when looking at photos of marches around the world where signs emblazoned with this mantra fleck the crowds. Powerful posters on our news feed remind us, “Silence is Violence”, “Racism is a Pandemic”, “Being Black is Not a Crime”, and call to “Defund the Police,” all highlighting the need for urgent change. There have been mass demonstrations in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement before. This time though, the energy seems to be different; a unifying force is brewing; encompassing all ages, sexes, and races with a strong statement: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

The sudden emergence and virulent occupation of the coronavirus across the globe has forced the art world as we know it to move online. It started with the cancellation of Art Basel Hong Kong in early February, swapping VIP tickets for logins to their online viewing rooms, then followed by the Sydney Biennale, which became the first international biennale to go online just 10 days after opening to the public. By now, all major and minor museums and art institutions alike have migrated to the online sphere. With lockdown extensions and further cancellations of events, our notion of a  “place” for public gathering has unrecognisably transformed- it is now the internet.