Dezeen Magazine

Per Kristian Nygård crams a grassy valley into an Oslo gallery

Norwegian artist Per Kristian Nygård attempted to bring the outside inside with this installation that involved building grassy mounds inside an Oslo gallery (+ slideshow).

Not Red But Green by Per Kristian Nygård

Per Kristian Nygård created the work, named Not Red But Green, for the white-space setting of Oslo's No Place gallery. The piece, which appeared as if an oversized lump of turf had been crammed into a tiny room, was on show during August.

The Trondheim-based installation artist – whose work explores the limitations and possibilities of space – constructed the unlikely landscape as an antithesis to the organised architectural environment.

Not Red But Green by Per Kristian Nygård

The artist told Dezeen the work was "seemingly meaningless and confusing – as a contrast to the all-encompassing meaningful and personalised we surround ourselves with, for example the programmed urban environment, the functional objects and architecture".

Not Red But Green by Per Kristian Nygård

"Visitors are confronted with their own intuitive and physical response to the experience of entering a space where everything's wrong but feels right," he said.

Not Red But Green by Per Kristian Nygård

The undulations in the terrain were constructed with a wooden framework, overlaid with plastic sheeting and a thick layer of soil impregnated with grass seed.

Not Red But Green by Per Kristian Nygård

The grass seed sprouted in the damp soil over the duration of the exhibition, and the lawn was tended and watered daily to create a moist growing environment.

Not Red But Green by Per Kristian Nygård

The green landscape, with patches of soil visible and wispy blades of grass, appeared at one stage to be growing up the sides of the white gallery walls.

Not Red But Green by Per Kristian Nygård

Smaller hills rose and fell around a row of narrow windows, so as not to block the sunlight from the space.

Not Red But Green by Per Kristian Nygård

The edges of the work creeped out onto the dark grey floor of the reception area, as if inviting gallery visitors in for a hike across the miniature landscape.

At one side, the soil sloped away to make space for the gallery's wood-burning stove.

Not Red But Green by Per Kristian Nygård

Photography is by Jason Olav Benjamin Havneraas.