A line through Dolven Balke’s work could be how humans act in precarious situations, and how those actions are inscribed on their surroundings. She works in the studio next to a more documentary approach with sound, film and photography - with materials made to support or augment the body directly via technology, or metaphorically as sculptural counterparts or aids to the photographs, films and sound works. Dolven Balke draws on language we use to describe experiences that seem impossible, although they are perhaps the most real of all: events related to time, our own vulnerability and attachments, as persons and as part of a society. Her work catalogues the surfaces and objects that accommodate, carry, give support, nurture and soften the body in intimate as well as institutional settings. She uses found materials in photographic collages and video sculptures; like anti-slip mats, water repellent paper, silicone and latex sheets, exam table bench paper, towels and memory foam. Dolven Balke often references water and flow, as an image of the absurd attempts to tidy, dry up, and control the massive leakage that accompanies life.
Thora Dolven Balke (b. 1982, Oslo) lives and works between Oslo, Norway and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Recent solo and duo exhibitions are Modo Host, CAMA, São Paulo (2024); Rough Seas, MELK (2021); False Spring, Lydgalleriet, Bergen (2020); You’re Dead, K4, Oslo (2020); FLOW, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro and MELK (2019); and All that respires, conspires at UKS, Oslo and Ultima Festival (2017). – recent group exhibitions and other projects include Moon in your Mouth, UKS, Oslo (2023); Preliminares, CAMA, São Paulo (2021); Journey to the heartlands, Jyväskylä Art Museum, Finland (2020); Mind moves with matter, body blends into space, Kunsthall Trondheim (2019); Off the Page, Bergen Kunsthall (2017); Slutten, Kristiansand Kunsthall (2017); Innland, Centre Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré, Tours (2017) and The Young Lions, Preus Fotomuseum, Oslo (2017). Among other curatorial projects, Dolven Balke co-curated the biennale Lofoten International Art Festival – LIAF – with Linn Pedersen in 2011 and co-founded and programmed the artist-run space REKORD in Oslo from 2006 to 2010. From 2021-2023 she was a central part of the collective public art work Agder Kunstakademi, a full-time art education for inmates of Agder Prison in Froland, produced by KORO Art in Public Space.
