Nuart, as an organization, offers a buffet for the intellectually ravenous mind. Nuart’s team has their hand in the each of the multitudinous pots conjuring delectable concoctions for their audience; from the documentaries this team supports to their esteemed journal, Nuart constantly seeks new manners to engage and contend with culture.
Murals have historically proven the awe-inspiring centerpiece of Nuart’s operations. Their annual festivals in Stavanger, Norway and Aberdeen, Scotland are international street art events. Naturally, the coronavirus pandemic stanched this year’s festivities.
True to form, Nuart pulled out “a few other moves and grooves planned to annoy the neighbors,” in the words of their announcement that the 20th anniversary iteration of their Stavanger festival had been cancelled. Nuart Lockdown Edition curated creative interventions able to transpire absent a crowd, like their Lock Down, Paste Up installations in Aberdeen.
Still, there’s nothing quite like the completion of a large-scale facade — something so massive that it would inspire discomfort if its beauty weren’t so striking. Nuart officially reentered the scene this month with their first mural in the post-lockdown world. Their latest endeavor employed artist Renate Hermansen aka RH74 to paint a wall in Ålgård, a small town located in the same county as Nuart’s native Stavanger.
Nuart Director and Curator Martyn Reed noted that the team began planning this mural last year. In a note to Street Art United States, he explained that their team had worked with architects to devise a frame totaling 10 meters by 20 meters. However, upon realizing that these smaller dimensions would make the mural look like it was floating in space amongst the massive wall, they went for the full facade. “Stavanger, as you know, is quite a small quaint city, and large scale authoritarian murals here can be a little too dominant,” Reed wrote. “It’s great to be able to get out and go big.”
Hermansen’s mural skillfully blends analogous elements one wouldn’t expect to find in the same work. On the whole, the artist depicts a vigilant guardian at once childlike and menacing. While her face and body are rendered in an animated, illustrative style, she seems to sport large wings more aligned with romance paintings or steampunk fairies. In the mass of her hair and the foot of her robes, eagles bob about after soccer balls. Upon further inspection, the viewer might notice the ball in the web behind her, or the fact that this guardians wings seem to be stretched across talons.
In their social media announcements, Nuart explained that the massive wall this mural was painted upon is actually home to Ålgård’s female handball club. Armed with this knowledge, viewers notice “the guardian catching a misplaced kick, that allows the seven players, represented as eagles (common in the area), to play on in peace. The web, representing the silk spun by the areas tradition in the textile industry,” the announcement explains.
“It sits in incredible surroundings with little to no ambient night light and acts as testament to the power of not only the many female teams, but also the leaders of the project who pushed ahead with the construction. We hope the power of the mural, expresses the power and grace of those that have created this building as their new long term home.”
In terms of scale and style, this work by Hermansen is certainly the biggest thing in the region. Until, that is, the next time Nuart’s team puts their heads together.
Images by Brian Tallman
