"Ordinary Vikings," featuring 14 sculptures of Scandinavian-Americans as Nordic archetypes in a virtual forest, will open today in the North Dakota State University Renaissance Hall Gallery in downtown Fargo.
The exhibit by installation artist Jill Johnson will be open through Jan. 28. Gallery hours at 650 NP Avenue are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is free.
"Ordinary Vikings" is an installation environment that visitors walk through to explore the Scandinavian identity question: "Are we still tribal 1,000 years after the last Viking ax was thrown?"
Installation art is about the entire concept portrayed, not individual pieces, a news release said. The bog "stav" sculptures that inspire this exhibit originally were stick sculptures of the Nordic deities placed in the bogs in Scandinavia.
The sculpture faces were made from beeswax and cast from the faces of North Dakota and Minnesota Scandinavian-Americans. Johnson set the masks into found trees or "stavar" as bodies with organic materials -- bark, feathers, wood and linen -- materials that would have been available during the Viking period.
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The opening reception for "Ordinary Vikings" will be from 4 to 8 p.m. today, with the artist talk at 7 tonight.
As the NDSU Visual Art Department's first local visiting artist, Johnson will work with NDSU art students on Wednesday, giving an artist talk and talking with students, making a print in the print studio and providing one on-one student consultations. The "Ordinary Vikings" exhibition is funded in part by a grant from the Lake Region Arts Council with McKnight Foundation funding and hosted by the NDSU Department of Fine Art.
Info: (701) 231-8818.
