In the Studio | Astri Styrkestad Haukaas
Tappan is pleased to introduce Astri Styrkestad Haukaas, an artist based in Copenhagen, Denmark where she co-runs the non-profit workspace KVIT. Haukaas' artistic practice is driven by the process, by cause and effect, and by allowing herself to be influenced by the materials she works with.
Photos by Emily Petersen
TAPPAN
Tell us about yourself and how you came to be an artist...
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
My name is Astri Styrkestad Haukaas. I’m from Norway but live and work in Copenhagen, Denmark.
I’ve painted, drawn and played my whole life. Like we all do. And like the famous Picasso quote about every child being an artist, I think I’ve just figured out along the way how to keep that as a big part of my everyday life. I’ve done a few fine art educations, and an entrepreneurial education. A highly fruitful combination of topics, that all had a big focus on play, curiosity and creation.
I’ve also been fortunate enough to have the support and encouragement to keep going. I’ve had breaks from painting in the past and might have in the future, but I always come back to it. I’m never worried about that. Detours are good.
Today I do art full time but it took years and years of hard work and working double or triple to make it into a full time career. I’ve been juggling several day jobs and running my own gallery simultaneously. I think my endurance, and the passion and love for the arts and for creating is the reason I’m still doing this today. And will forever. But it’s been hard work, and still is. That’s important to mention.
TAPPAN
Describe your work in three words.
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
Reminiscence, process driven, flowy.
TAPPAN
What draws you to painting?
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
There is something very immediate about it. During my long breaks from painting, I miss producing something about how I feel in the world. I can’t do that in the same way with words - written or spoken. Painting is the way I react to the world. I think it's a way of portraying everything I consume; visually, emotionally, aural and tactile – I take it in and somehow it influences my work in the studio. I love that. It also suits me to start and not know how or when it will end - only following the colors, shapes and movement. There is such a delightful feeling of freedom in that.
TAPPAN
What influence does living in Copenhagen have on your work?
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
I am able to reflect on nature from the city. That is very different from what happens in my head and body when I am actually on top of a mountain or walking up a river running at the bottom of a vast remote valley. I think it has become more and more clear to me that distance - emotionally and physically - plays a big part in my work.
Another influence is my everyday life in Copenhagen. I have a lot of art and culture at my fingertips, and a vibrant, social community around me, filled with inspiring and talented people. After almost six years of running a gallery, I have developed a great network of professional and private connections. The people and the city influences me a lot, and the distance I end up having to my places in nature does too. Contrasts and shifts.
Astri Styrkestad Haukaas in studio
Astri Styrkestad Haukaas says
“It is an important part of the process to have a certain distance from what I love. Nature has perhaps become a symbol of that. Something is always far away. And that's ok. That's how it retains its magic and its beauty.”
TAPPAN
What is your creative process?
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
It's a lot about reminiscing about moments I've had in the wilderness. To try to filter those memories and to let the feeling fill the body so that in a state of flow, I can create something that feels similar on a piece of canvas. It's a very open process and I know it's done when there's something that feels recognisable. Like I can take a step back and see something I recognize.
It is an important part of the process to have a certain distance from what I love. Nature has perhaps become a symbol of that. Something is always far away. And that's ok. That's how it retains its magic and its beauty.
It’s very intuitive, but I look a lot at photos, sounds and video I’ve captured when I’m hiking; stones, moss, running water, views, clouds, moody weather, thunderstorms and so on. It all goes in and comes out on a canvas.
TAPPAN
Where do you draw inspiration from?
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
Poetry. Other artists. Nature. Friends. Memories. Longing. And also just everyday life - walking around.
I’ve been obsessed with the writer and activist Rebecca Solnit for years now. I love the way she observes nature and humans and the big lines in history and the contemporary.
She has through the years taught me a lot about my own practice. And what I actually work with. Like this excerpt; .."We treat desire as a problem to be solved, address what desire is for and focus on that something and how to acquire it rather than on the nature and the sensation of desire, though often it is the distance between us and the object of desire that fills the space in between with the blue of longing. I wonder sometimes whether with a slight adjustment of perspective it could be cherished as a sensation on its own terms, since it is as inherent to the human condition as blue is to distance? If you can look across the distance without wanting to close it up, if you can own your longing in the same way that you own the beauty of that blue that can never be possessed? For something of this longing will, like the blue of distance, only be relocated, not assuaged, by acquisition and arrival, just as the mountains cease to be blue when you arrive among them and the blue instead tints the next beyond. Somewhere in this is the mystery of why tragedies are more beautiful than comedies and why we take a huge pleasure in the sadness of certain songs and stories. Something is always far away.”
I can read this again and again.
TAPPAN
What influence does modern culture have on your work?
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
I'm not sure. I mean… on a subconscious level it provides a contrast to what I’m forever thinking about and looking for in my paintings. The feelings and thoughts I’m occupied with are very separate from the modern culture I live in every day. And at the same time the modern human longing for nature, place, connection and stillness is what I’m also very interested in. It’s a flip side and a tension or contrast between the modern human and the wilderness I’m very curious about.
TAPPAN
What do you listen to when creating?
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
Anything by Rebecca Solnit on audiobook. Also love silence when I’m working. Also actually love having a conversation with a studio mate or a friend visiting…. It really depends on what mood I’m in, I think.
Audiobooks are a new thing for me. I realized I am so much better at listening while I’m painting. It’s amazing to discover.
TAPPAN
What is your relationship with social media?
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
I love it. And I’m addicted. It definitely fucks with my focus, and I have a very hard time balancing my use. I typically use it to share my work. Like I will post a lot of content from my studio, works in progress and upcoming exhibitions and release of new series of works. I also just share stuff from my life. I will forever share old snippets from my camera roll. I looooove looking at photos from hikes, dinner parties and good times. Actually I’m just a romantic girlie that loves (trying to) re-experiencing moments of big impact. They work as a time travel device just like smell and sound can.
TAPPAN
What messages or emotions do you hope to convey to your audience?
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
A sense of calm and connection maybe. Or a sense of expansion. Questions arising without a need to answer them. If someone would stop and look, and feel a need to spend time with the artwork, that would be my biggest hope.
TAPPAN
Who are some contemporaries or figures in art history who have influenced you?
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
Rebecca Solnit, Helena Frankenthaler, Norwegian painter Peter Balke, Norwegian poet Olav H Hauge, philosopher Arne Næss, the Danish artist Else Alfelt (to name a few). Also the artists that I get in touch with through my own practice, that stop by the studio and through my network.
TAPPAN
Are there any quotes or mantras that you particularly connect with?
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
I have been thinking a lot about the words that were spoken at the funeral of a magnificent woman I knew briefly. “Change is transformation. Take a deep breath”. And from Rebecca Solnit’s The Field Guide to Getting Lost, “in nature, if you get lost, the key to survival is knowing you’re lost.”
TAPPAN
What makes you laugh?
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
My friends, my son and my boyfriend. All hilarious.
TAPPAN
What makes you nervous?
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
Expectations. It’s a love / hate relationship.
TAPPAN
What makes you excited about the future?
ASTRI STYRKESTAD HAUKAAS
My son.
