LM: When I was studying in the early 2000s, relational aesthetics and neo-conceptualism were getting a lot of attention. The practice I have been developing over the years, is very traditional compared to my years in art school when we were learning about relational aesthetics as the highest expression in art one could do. We were just listening, sitting on the floor eating soup. It was great! But it seems radical doing what I do now in contrast to what I have been taught. In the years right after I finished art school, I did new projects without a signature style and without having a red thread going through – no aesthetic examination that would indicate a continuation of the works. Instead, I leaned on a storytelling narrative as the main carrier of the work. Subsequently, when I became a parent, I decided to schedule a more 9 to 5 shaped week. I started working in series – every work is the continuation of the last.

We further talk about his sculpting practice deriving directly from painting, a medium he is trained and feels most at home in, and the newly conceived works that are going to be displayed at the Enter fair in Copenhagen this August.

LM: I consider myself a painter – I am standing in painting with both feet, but I do sculpture variations of my paintings. I like to challenge myself with a composition that should work from all angles, instead just two-dimensional surface. It is a break from the flat surface which makes me push myself in a completely different and challenging way. I think of it as a sort of dramaturgy; the works are reacting to each other – like repartees or in Norwegian ‘replikk’. They bounce off each other.

KS: At the Enter Fair you are showcasing paintings and sculptural works; tell us a bit more about the works?

LM: With these sculptural works I worked very similar to how I work with painting. I started with loose sketches, which is the starting process of how I approach a painting. My previous sculptures have been digitally drawn and digitally modeled shapes that are 3D printed and then sent to the foundry to be casted. On these two new ones I worked more traditionally, when it comes to sculpture. First, they were modeled as skeletons in metal, then covered in wire and shaped with plaster.

KS: Some surfaces are very polished, some are textured. How do you go about that?

LM: A perfect finish can make it impersonal. I prefer some marks from the process, but it’s a fine line. I usually keep my sculptures in my studio for some weeks after casting and decide how the finish should look. It is not about leaving the surface untreated, vulgar in a way, but more so pure.

Morell further discusses the visually unique form he has been developing over the years, how it came to be and the different shapes it adopts.

KS: The viewer can see the prominent form that you have been developing either in painting or in sculpture – it is determined by the medium’s domain and inherent qualities the latter has. It seems to me that you capture a sequence of a broader system. Why is capturing this elusive movement important to you?

LM: I found this new world of possibilities; I could focus on small variations rather than reinventing the wheel every time I did a show or a project. And I found that more challenging; to be investigating small changes. I seek the movement, balance and surprising elements in the structures I form. It shapes the whole day and the whole week for me.

KS: In my view, the sculptures seem to suggest a notion of inwardness because they are compelled to capture themselves in a sense. The form must finish somewhere. They can’t spread as the depicted forms in the paintings can – confined by the four sides of the frame. The sculptures, they are a bit introverted, it seems.

LM: That's very well observed, and as you said, working with the possibilities and limitations of the medium changes the inherent expressiveness of the form. Regarding the sculptures, they are a self-contained loops, however, the works on canvas, they are endless, only ‘cropped out’ to make a certain composition. It is a completely different language.

KS: Walk us through the gradual development of the series you have started before and have been working on recently.

LM: About 10 years ago I started to employ elements from the world of illusions, magic and early-stage trickery, as a source of inspiration. I used items such as teapots and magician’s hat almost as decorative props, just so you could vaguely see the shape underneath the cloth, because the point was in covering up. The draped sculpture from the exhibition entitled Porta’s description (2013) from Palais de Tokyo was the starting point. It doesn’t carry any shape underneath, as it is hollow inside.

And the Shadow canvases series, the sprayed canvases are foggy and misty. Metaphorically, I dismantled the mist and uncovered the structures in the paintings, furthermore, with sculpture I uncovered the drapery and revealed the shape underneath. But as I uncovered the shapes, I realized that the object I disguised wasn’t the point, the covering was. Abstraction as a mode of creating reveals something distinct in a visual sense and provides many possible ways to read it.

I think it's interesting to think of this series’ development as chapters in a book that you discover in a certain order.

KS: I didn't know about the objects being uncovered, metaphorically. It seemed that departure point was always from real life objects that are tangible. As if you took the sediments that remain from observations of objects that appear in daily life. The softer elements allude to gauzes, ribbons, ligaments, and the rigid ones to, branches or roots… As you have been abstracting the forms gradually through the years, they have acquired a new unique visual articulation, your signature expression. They dodge any clear representational signifiers.

LM: I think of the abstraction process as a way of establishing a pure abstract form that can be read, however. The form should carry itself. The key is to work with the medium – research it; what can be done with it, how is it going to react, how it can be treated. At first, I would pile the objects to appear more abstract. I would already distort them there. It’s like subtle luxury – as something opposite to flashy. It is the same with abstracting. Implying something with avoiding the explicitness. It plays into immediate visual confusion and, with that, curiosity.

KS: In continuation of your point on curiosity – I had the association on the visual concepts that were explored by gestalt-psychology theorists; how the cognitive apparatus forms mental schemes which are connections between visual stimuli in order to make sense of the visual material it collects. The important part in these schemes are the connections, not the actual information because that gets ‘updated’ every time we experience the same visual concept linked to the mental one. With your work it is not about these spontaneous connections the mind makes with what it knows from before. What kind of relation does the work establish with the viewer then? Does this iconography represent anything particular to you or is it a tool to address the viewer?

LM: Those visual concepts are very interesting, and surely can be tied to the work I do. Although, regarding the relation the work establishes with a viewer, the strategy is evoking a feeling within, excluding the understanding or the knowledge of what the reference is. The forms come from observations that are subjective but not personal. It is an attempt to explain the honest way into making these works. In that way they are more so a tool, indeed.

Morell elaborates on the working hours he spends daily in his studio, how they translate into the finished works and the uncertainty that inevitably comes with it. He emphasizes the role of intuition in the decision-making and the confidence he gained over the years.

For me, it's kind of poetic that half of my time in the studio is spent planning in detail, sketching, mixing paint, making a certain order, and that the other half is improvisation. The improvisation is necessary for me to push or surprise myself. For me the moment of leaving the studio for the day is always a surprise, because I never know when to stop working on something. Since I am leaning on a certain gut feeling, or the idea that I must believe in the work, I find the title of the series of paintings, Translations, very suitable. This is where this poetic leap comes in, that stomach feeling that says; here, it's something! The conclusion is: this is the moment when I am satisfied with the work.

KS: You only convey the moment of success when the work is finished, not the buildup to it?

LM: I would say success is everything that I experience during the process, as well as the energy and the harmony; hopefully. The thing is that I've always trusted my hands. In my practice I have slowly but steadily moved towards talking less about the works and focusing more on the experience, and with that – using more traditional mediums. Going back to the relational aesthetics we were talking about before; I can't blame everything on that. It also has to do with the way of learning by actually doing, and with that learning to stay on track, relying on your own belief and being comfortable in staying on the crooked road that has a lot of departures.

KS: Were you ever concerned with the contemporariness in your work, since you went back to the more traditional mediums and approach to creative work?

LM: Times are always shifting. Therefore, I would rather insist on looking backwards. There is always a new explosion in the artworld and what seems like a completely new way of doing it! It is not about creating something that looks completely new and contemporary – something never done before. A trend-artist exhibits at big galleries for 2 years and what happens then?

KS: It seems pushing to always be perceived as ultra-contemporary might do an artist a disservice. If the one has a clear incentive on what they want to convey and what the viewer’s takeaway should be, and what the value is of that work – if that matches, then the work should be regarded successful by the artist, in my opinion.

LM: I completely agree. Swedish artist Karin Mama Anderson says, in a very poetic way, that you can stand in your practice, or you can run after the sun your whole life and still be in the shadow; but you can stand still in your own practice and maybe get a glimpse of the sunlight. And if you're lucky, you get 2 trips around the sun, you know.

KS: As an artist you are sort of forced to always respond to your environment and culture trends?

LM: If one takes that too literally, they should go to a commercial school or advertising company. With artists, if that is something that comes from their own curiosity or fascination or whatever, that is fine. But I believe it is not their responsibility. It is not necessary to have an opinion about every subject matter there is and make a big headline about it.

We further explore the role of improvisation in his work, which could be overlooked by the viewer but is very much present in the artist’s eyes.

KS: Your works seem very controlled, and it seems like you are providing the viewer with certain conditions as to how the works can be discerned; you make it a difficult task for the viewer to make sense of the imagery, as you are not asking them to necessarily do so as we talked about earlier.

LM: That's good to hear, that you actually feel there is a lack of improvisation! When I am making them, I feel it's a lot of improvisation. It's just that, in my mind, they are improvised.

KS: My point is that, once it's on the canvas, that's it, right? You can't improvise on the canvas.

LM: That’s right. I use the oil as watercolor – I do not make corrections. I paint alla prima, which means wet on wet. I can use one day, and I can use one year. But, mostly, because it's wet in wet, one day. But the planning stages can take longer – until I am satisfied. With sculptures, on the other hand, I also make the sketch of the form, a prototype of sorts, that will then be made by the professional craftsmen in the foundry. The bronze is first heated then brushed and sprayed with patina, and so on… And we just have to say stop at certain point, before they get completely black.

KS: As this conversation draws to a close; being an established and successful artist, I am interested in knowing, what is next for you? Are there any new directions or projects you're excited about?

LM: I'm very excited about the next show with QB in May 2025. It won't be far away from what I do now, but it will definitely be a new step. I haven’t decided yet and planned the works yet in detail – but I am very much looking forward to having this long autumn and winter of work towards that show.

Interview by Katarina Snoj

Photography by Kari Kjøsnes

August 2024, Oslo