Henrik Ibsen

HENRIK IBSEN

One of my favourite playwrights is Henrik Ibsen. He and Anton Chekhov are similar in their ability to write down characters as an entity in an entire universe. They remind us that life is a bit shit sometimes and that we are alone, but that we are ALL alone therefore all in it together. Here are some of my favourite quotes from his plays and a mood board analysis of Hedda Gabler.

The Lady from the Sea
Looking in the mirror and acknowledging what life is/isn’t.

Freedom of Expression:
“But my mind - my thoughts - my dreams and longings - those you cannot imprison. They strain to roam and hunt out into the unknown -which I was born for…” (Ellida, 206)

The Master Builder
The young and the old. Success and love in life. Inner demons and a loss of childhood.

Meaning:
“I was so alone, hollow, empty. In a cold and blue room - huge and empty, filled full of things I tried to give meaning to. My life meaning too. But now I’m filling”. (Solness, 72)



A Dolls House
Life’s meanings. Success and love.

Love and success:
“That’s just the point. You never understood me. A great wrong has been done to me, Torvald. First by pa and then by you.”(Nora, 97)

Hedda Gabbler
Repelled by the Realities of sex. Defying what people accept.

Life’s journey:
“And the train goes on” (Hedda, 278)

This Mood Board (below) was my direct reaction to reading Hedda Gabbler. The Board transits from childhood at the far left to death in adulthood at the far right.

A train track along the bottom to represent her journey in life and quotes from the play along the sides. The images fall vertically and each section along represents a stage in her life. The beginning 'chunk' is about childhood, innocence and what we imagined life would be like. It moves into a 'chunk' about adulthood and how it feels when you begin to realise that these things will not come true - the realities of life. Then onwards and into the only remaining stage - death. These images portray death as something peaceful because it is death that Hedda chooses when she can bear her adulthood no more. She escapes to death where she can sleep forever more and be or dream whatever kind of world she wants.

Love Stories in Romeo and Juliet/Where is Prince Charming?
"The anti depressants seemed to be working" 
Happiness is not so easy to come by.

"When I am grown up"
Mermaids as a symbol of virginity
'Dance Scrawls' - Lines scrawled to the melody of music
"Fuck off, I'm smoking" - Intoxicating and drugging oneself to get through the day can take you to somewhere else in your head more content than the real world outside of it.

"Sex" - Hedda is repelled by sex. The lady has a gun at her knees. The triangle is a symbol of femininity.
"Trapped" - Nowhere to go, lost in life and unable to imagine going anywhere that feels any better.

Sam's Freedom Video

SAM'S FREEDOM VIDEO

RITUAL

Two things make up The Design for Living - power and love. Success, as in a pursuit of something you love doing - doing something that makes you feel fulfilled. And love, as in loving someone and being loved in return. Or to put it more simply The Design for Living is loving people and loving what you do day to day!

The Rivers of Clarity By Almada Groen

“Shall I be able to express, one day, my love of work – my desire to be a better writer – my longing to take greater pains. And the passion i feel. It takes the place of religion – it is my religion” (Groen).

The girl in this video is called Sam; she is an art student and creating art is what she loves doing day to day. It gives her purpose and therefore power. This video is a representation of how that makes her feel. She is away physically and mentally from the exterior world, in an environment making art with other artists - she feels free. The song choice to the video is Back to Freedom by Bellylove.

She works with nature and then re structures it into different forms. In the video she shows us some of the materials she is planning on using, one of which is a bundle of sticks. The video follows what Sam does with the sticks as she tries to find a brush to sweep them up and find a storage space for them. The reason this is shown in detail is to show the 'behind the scenes' of her work, the process behind the creation. Looking at a beautiful piece of work strung up in a furnished and decadent gallery grabs the attention of many, but personally I am more interested in the person who made the work. 

Sam is currently at Duncan and Jordanstone Art College in Dundee and that is where the this video was filmed. The interior shots are of the university studio spaces and corridors. The reason I filmed the video here is because of its large open and white spaces - they scream sanctuary and freedom. One shot is of a long corridor lined with statues and with a black and white tiled floor which reminded me of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and the threshold you have to cross to get into a liminal space i.e. Alice goes down the rabbit hole and Sam goes down the corridor.

All the shots in the building are in chronological order of Sam during the day. The shots outside are of her with her mum working backwards to their meeting at the end of Sam's day at university. The reason her mum is in the video is because she represents Sam's love of a person - the other part of her Design - and therefore the two parts of her design come together at the end. The shot of the leaves swirling around the ground is shown twice - this shot represents the beauty in the outside world through nature. Nature will always be there and is always a power that is a part of everyone's Design.