LTE: Our department was very similar to many other departments at KHiO (the Oslo Academy of the Arts) program-wise, but it included students who dealt with basically any medium. And there were only 6 of us, which I really liked because I was so shy at the time. It was a safe space for me. We got the same professors as students at other departments at KHiO and the same opportunities. I used to make a lot of drawings, which wasn’t as encouraged by the professors at the Academy, where drawing was only seen as a vessel to make sketches for bigger projects.

When I finished school, I got to do a lot of commission works for different schools and public buildings, for instance in St. Olavs Hospital; I was happy doing that for maybe 10 years. Then I became a mother to two girls and when I came back to work I didn’t connect to it at all, which was really strange. I felt like the world moved on from what interested me, so I had to restudy my practice to find the necessary keys to get started again.

Tandrevold Eriksen discusses the pivotal moment in her career in 2015, when she was invited to participate in a group exhibition with two other artists where they reflected upon Norwegian textile artist Frida Hansen's oeuvre. The exhibition 'Hvordan lage en Hage', was held in Stavanger Kunstmuseum in the artist's hometown. She further explains:

LTE: Through exploring her work, I started to brush bold strokes on canvas to connect to her sketches for her tapestries. I completely changed my technique, essentially. I wanted to make bigger formats that resembled some of the elements in the tapestries she made. I studied her colors – it was very important for me to soak the canvas in colors, not to layer paint on top of the surface. I value this ‘closeness’ in the material, which is why I also never gesso the canvas.

KS: Although it was a sudden shift, that development seems deliberate and organic. I am interested in knowing who or what influences you now?

LTE: Well, I find myself always going back to Willem de Kooning and Helen Frankenthaler. Furthermore, Camille Henrot, David Salle, and Munch, to be honest.

In addition, I listen to a lot of science podcasts and often think about the nature of water – how it circulates and how it has been in millions and millions of bodies and plants; I think it is extremely beautiful that the water I use is extremely old. It consists of components that have always been here.

KS: There is a certain contrasting interplay in your work; your technique using water, not only as material, but as the integral contributor to the gesture and the final score it determines. Your role in the process seems very adaptable and fluid, alluding to the feminine. On the other hand, the sewing practice, which is often associated with a predominantly female profession, could be seen as more controlled, suggesting a masculine quality.

LTE: That is very interesting. I have never thought about it that way. To expand on that, I did gradually make water be the collaborator, not only the element that is present in my work. I found this philosopher called Astrida Gundega Neimanis who uses the term ‘hydrofeminism’ in her book Bodies of Water. She emphasizes the water element as fundamental connectedness between bodies and this inevitable exchange between the environment and humans, which resonates with my work, as I use ‘old water,’ like I mentioned. It connects to this idea of the continuum and the world, and in my case, my practice – I see it as one body of work, elements transitioning from one to the other seeking connections, and existing together. But the layers of reused water reflect the time and duration embedded in the canvas – the time that was necessary for the process. It is a kind of time capsule. I connect this to the concept we mentioned – to the bigger scale.

KS: This technique seems to be very challenging, right, because of the lack of control you have over your gesture. How much can you predict when you work with water?

LTE: The endpoint is quite surprising even now when I have been doing it for many years. The unruliness of water keeps me more open than it limits me.

KS: You tend to push the limits of what painterly materials can offer and you look at the practice familiar to you from another medium's perspective. Your practice is rooted in a painter's logic but is always touching the border that is limiting the medium, as if it would be striving for extension. But the works seem to stay grounded. The groundedness is also showing in how your works communicate with the viewer.

LTE: Yes, I also want to keep my works open and be informative enough so that they don't turn people away and become vain. I want the works to be available to a bigger circle of people, not for them to be a crossword that only the elite can solve. But first, you have to fulfill yourself with what you do.

We further discuss Tandrevold Eriksen's use of canvas, where she draws near to textile art categorization – she comments on how that doesn't seem to be the right fit for her work.

KS: Why did you start incorporating textile practice into your paintings?

LTE: There are two reasons: first, I wanted to recycle works I didn’t find as successful, and I felt kind of guilty for using so much canvas. I like how old pieces make dialogues with newer works. Second, I genuinely think the material has much more potential than just being flat. I stuff them with puff material.

KS: Your work derives from a painterly logic, therefore it would probably be too naïve to proclaim it as textile art, although the sewn-in additions have different implications than a gesture has, per se.

LTE: I wouldn’t proclaim it as that. I just work with the materials which are canvas, color, and water. This openness is interesting to me.

KS: Textile art’s political sub-meaning then probably doesn’t apply to your practice, right?

LTE: I have thought a lot about it, actually. This hierarchy propelled people to suddenly want to buy my paintings over drawings and sculptures. I never understood this gap – someone tells me that those works are worth more and more wanted because they are categorized that way – but it is the same material, and are based on the same knowledge and experiences making art.

KS: Can you tell me a bit more about working mechanisms that you developed over the years; what does your daily creative process look like?

LTE: I try not to stop thinking about my practice because I find it so hard to get back into it. When I am back from vacation, for example, I need one or two weeks to get back into the mindset – I simply must start creating again. And be comfortable with the fact that I will probably not use any of it. I do that for a while and suddenly I am back into it. And I like to listen to something while I am at it, something completely unrelated to me, for example, science podcasts, like I mentioned. It is also very important for me to write. When I am thinking about titles for my works, I like to look at English words from a distance of sorts in an abstract way – I am able to do that because I am not a native speaker, of course. I like to notice their shapes, sounds, almost the taste they leave in your mouth – without looking at their meanings.

We touch upon Liv Tandrevold Eriksen’s challenges and obstacles she faces and sometimes even imposes on herself.

LTE: It is hard for me to make these paintings because I am very often disappointed with my work. I have never felt as much of a failure as when making these works, but on the other hand, they were the most well-received. I continue intuitively and with uncertainty. I have to let go of expectations and not control everything too much during the process. Some days are better than others.

KS: That is actually very surprising to hear. But you are the primary viewer of your work, I think many would disagree about what is a successful work and what isn't. How many successful days would you say you have?

LTE: Oh, it's not days, it's hours! One moment I feel like I am getting somewhere, and then I mess up. It is just how it goes. I have to trust my body to do what I want it to do. Trust that what is learned and not learned will play along. If things are not going the way I hoped, I have to play along with that.

KS: Do you find that difficult? Committing to a gesture and not being able to redo it? It can only be superimposed, but the transparency inevitably always displays the first stroke underneath.

LTE: Yes, it’s a struggle. I don’t think I am getting better at it, but I think I try to have the right mindset and the energy to approach this painting process. Because the canvas is always responding.

KS: As this conversation draws to a close; as a well-established artist with a mature practice, what are you working on right now, and what are your plans for the future?

LTE: I am further exploring how painting practice could function indirectly as a sculptural object. I have new ideas on working with two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms, without stuffing materials as I did before, but rather strengthening the material so it can stand by itself. In addition, I am working on new paintings that will be showcased at Enter Art Fair in Copenhagen. I am also co-organizing a new artist-initiated group exhibition that will take place in 2025, though it is still in the planning phase.

Interview by Katarina Snoj

Photography by Kari Kjøsnes

July 2024, Oslo