Toril Johannessen

Taking Form

The sculpture Taking Form (2026) consists of a metal figure and two willow trees planted to grow around and into the sculptural form. The work is in slow transformation, and is a meeting between living trees, sculpture and sunlight creating shadow images at certain times.

The work was commissioned by KORO and is installed in the park by The Life Science Building at the University of Oslo, which opened Summer 2026.

Bound Form

Bound Form is a series of seven sculptures made from contour-cut wedges of pine. They are suspended from the ceiling and lit so that they create a shadow play across the walls.

The sculptures were made in Aldea’s workshop in Bergen in 2025, and were first shown at Trondheim Kunstmuseum in the exhibition Lorck Schive Art Prize 2025. With this exhibition at Aldea’s gallery, the sculptures return to the place where they were made.

The Border Crossed Us / Barents Spektakel 2026

The festival exhibition for the annual arts festival Barents Spektakel, titled «The Border Crossed Us», brings together works that comment on how borders are formed, maintained and challenged — and what happens when they are crossed, collapse or lose meaning.

I am participating in the exhibition with the work “Locating the High North 1-5″. The series takes the form of screen printed maps of the Arctic with the North Pole at its centre, and is an attempt to show how the geographical contours of the so-called High North have changed over time. In a Norwegian context, “the High North” is not a clearly defined geographical area, but rather a foreign policy concept concerning international relations in the northern border regions. In the series, I trace various definitions of the High North based on political documents, social science publications, and public debate.

Image: Locating the High North (I)

Book / Deterrence and Reassurance

The book Deterrence and Reassurance was produced in connection with the 2024 Festival Exhibition of the same title. In the book, produced after the exhibition closed, three invited authors expand on the historical, military, and cartographic themes that unfolded in the exhibition.

The texts are written by Hanne Hammer Stien, Philippe Rekacewicz and Ingeborg Hjorth. Additionally, the publication features paper inserts with my own notes and photographs.

Editors: Silja Leifsdottir & Mai Lahn-Johannessen
Design: Blank Blank Studio

Map / Colloquial place names linked to military activity

Colloquial place names linked to military activity (Norway) is a double-sided poster/foldable map, building on a series of screen prints with the same name.

The map is available to purchase from Tromsø Kunstforening, Mondo Books and Bergen Kunsthall.

Deterrence and Reassurance

The exhibition Deterrence and Reassurance at Tromsø Kunstforening / Romssa Dáiddasiida directs attention to how geopolitics and military presence shape society and everyday life in Norway, with a particular focus on Northern Norway. The works in the exhibition form an interwoven civil-military landscape, and thematize how militarization and soft power leave their mark on language, landscape and experiences of safety and unrest. Previous editions of the exhibition have been shown at Bergen Kunsthall as the Festival Exhibition 2024, and most recently at the Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter in Svolvær.

Image above: Notes from the deep to the cold peace 1989 – 2025, book with photo copies and texts. The book is available in the exhibition in English and Norwegian.
Photo: Mihály Stefanovicz / Tromsø Kunstforening