TOBIAS ORDERUD
PAINTINGS
DENMARK 2020-2021
NEW ZEALAND 2019
JAPAN ---- Coming soon
COPENHAGEN 2022-2024
SHOP
INFO
A period of simultaneous healing and wailing. An important time where I realised my priorities and rediscovered my faith in the world and people. It has been an uphill battle, but I am left with a freedom and clarity of personal values and goals. The paintings are based on experiences of sensation, yet scattered as I struggled to find the relationship between what caused their weight.
Constantly shifting approach based on the purpose the expression is the result of a search for honesty; it feels limiting to describe everything in only one language. As the personal journey I have undertaken in these years was indeed personal, I have not strived to implement a constructed cohesion, although the red thread connecting the work appears through my inclinations in form, color and ultimately experiences.
The work becomes a form of therapy as my life becomes clearer in relationship to my paintings. The need to continue to produce and the lifestyle it demands is what rewards me with a feeling of belonging as well as much needed solitude and reflection.
A word on animation
This period was heavily influenced by having a day job in animation in an attempt to sustain an income while working with something expressive. Although the industry is full of talented artists and potential, the final products are almost always submerged in financial agendas and client specifications. Rarely did I experience working on a production where honest expression and creativity in storytelling was respected in the same breath as a clients demand for “more color and detail”. There is an ingrained relationship between money and animation that lacks the understanding of its potential as a medium. I have come to realize that animation only ever seems to contain honesty when the team is small and the funding offers final cut and a hands off approach. Animation is stuttering in its persuit of quality, and quality in animation is seen as avant garde and difficult - as we have been shaped to expect dopamine and simplicity. Hopefully the day will come when capitalism realises the timeless importance of artistry in contrast to the demeaning impression that instanenous and superficial “wow-factor” is a sign of quality. There is a universe of potential in animation, yet it is supervised and controlled by non-artists and capitalists. I look forward to the day artists stop being the hands of selfish money gobblers with an agenda.