Photo: Jiska Huizing
Lommeskog / Pocket forest (2025)
Artist book made for Hvitsten Salong
10,8 x 8cm / 48 pages
Riso printed with blue, fluorescent pink, yellow
Edition: 30
Available for sale through the contact form (500 NOK)
Lomme: et mindre, avgrenset område eller en gruppering av ting som på en bestemt måte skiller seg ut fra omgivelsenene.
Pocket: a smaller, distinct area or a grouping of things that in one way or another differ from their surroundings.
In the forest, you find places where the needles on the ground suddenly shift colour. When it rains, it’s exactly here that the water collects. Hvitsten Salong’s exhibition place also lies like a pocket in the landscape; down at the fjord, surrounded by slopes of stone and forest.
From the 1500’s to the 1800’s several dams were built into the river that streams out into the fjord at Hvitsten Salong. These were a part of a water-powered sawmill and a collection of grinding mills. The highest dam made the field at Solbakken, on the lower side of the sewage treatment plant, into a big pocket in the terrain that filled with water. The sediments in the water sank to the bottom and created a fertile layer, turning the field into a perfect piece of ground to be cultivated.
The artist book Lommeskog / Pocket forest, made especially for Hvitsten Salong 2025, started as a formal investigation into ‘pockets’ in the landscape that Hvitsten Salong takes place in. The work is a kind of description of place, and can be used to orient oneself in the landscape in a playful and investigative way.
The book looks into what a pocket can be and what kind of pockets are present in that specific place. In addition to a pocket being part of our clothes, the word also has a broader meaning: a smaller, distinct area or a grouping of things that in one way or another differ from their surroundings.
Lommeskog / Pocket forest is a riso-printed book in pocket format that the public can take for a walk in the surroundings. A map at the start of the book shows a selection of points that one can navigate to. Looking into a specific form of pockets, 3D pop-up techniques are also part of the book, going against the 2D-ness of the page and adding movement to the experience of the book.
Thank you to Jessica Williams the riso-wizard for the printing help!
Photo above: Aliona Pazdniakova/Safemuse / Photos bellow: Jiska Huizing
