Imagine Sandnes

Gunning's film ‘Imagine Sandnes’ was commissioned for the ‘Vitamin Festival’ by Sandnes AS (Sandnes Town Council, Norway), Rogaland Kunstsenter (the City Arts Center) and Sandnes Kunstforening (Sandnes Arts Society). It was selected and curated by Kjetil Berge and Bernhard Østebø.

The ‘Vitamin Festival’ and its curators asked the question: can art shed light on and stimulate the future of Sandnes? The Festival invited Norwegian and international artists to put their mark on various parts of the town particularly Langgata, the main street of Sandnes. The festival organisers encouraged the occupation of temporary venues for showing art including shops, the street, carparks, restaurants, house walls and store windows with the intention to catch a wider ‘non art going’ audience with exhibitions, performances, happenings, events, talks and openings.

Imagine Sandnes is a film specific to the context of Sandnes and is a direct response to the anomic condition of being an ‘artist in residence’ in this small town. The work addresses the artist’s experience of Sandnes in terms of the cinematic, that is, as a ‘location’. The film is constructed out of the in-between and pending moments in film where seemingly not much is happening, which are central to the role of ‘action shots’ within film.

Gunning chose to exhibit the final work in a fully functioning opticians shop as an alternative context of looking and seeing.

The work continues Gunning’s ongoing research about place and context.

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