The Poster Artists – Kilden 2022
A SIBLING DUO FROM SOUTHERN NORWAY IS BEHIND THE 2022 POSTER ART SERIES
Theater Director Valborg Frøysnes didn’t have to look far when she set out to find an artist to collaborate with on designing the theater’s posters for 2022. Just a stone’s throw from Kilden one of Kristiansand’s most talked-about and innovative artists, in a studio that, at first glance, looks like the theater’s own workshop.
Erik Pirolt lives and works in Kristiansand. He studied at the art academies in Trondheim and Oslo, and graduated from the Oslo Academy of Fine Arts in 2008. Together with his sister and graphic designer Anna Maria H. Pirolt , he has developed a series of poster art that blends classical, figurative painting with 3D technology.
A PRODUCT OF SIBLING LOVE
Pirolt saw the assignment primarily as an opportunity to spend more time with his family.
“ The whole project has actually felt like a kind of vacation. Because during the holidays, I spend a lot of time with my sister,” says Pirolt about the collaboration. “Plus, my sister is what you could safely call a perfectionist, and an incredibly talented graphic designer.”
Anna Maria Pirolt has run the design studio Brød&tekst in Oslo since 2008, specializing in book and print design for clients such as Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Save the Children, and Cappelen Damm. She is also a skilled costume designer with a passion for sewing and textiles.
And that naturally raises the question: what has the process been like when two multi-talented creators—who are also siblings—set out to create something together?
– We’ve been swimming in a million ideas and have been very open. When you reach a point where there isn’t much talk of “my” or “your” idea, and you’re just building on each other’s ideas, you can eventually look back on a tapestry woven together. So in many ways, you could say that the posters are a product of sibling love, says Erik Pirolt.
NEW TECHNOLOGY
Pirolt goes on to say that one of the ideas that emerged early in the process was to create a 3D model.
– I’ve mostly worked with sculpture throughout my career, so when I create images, I use a sculptural approach. If you can shape clay, you can, in principle, also shape digital data.
The basic idea was to make the posters come to life by animating the paintings using 3D technology, and then creating video loops from them. This year’s theater posters have thus taken on two formats—they are both paintings and animations.
Pirolt admits that developing the technique needed to animate the paintings has been time-consuming, but a lengthy process isn't necessarily a bad thing;
“It has been a real treat to spend so much time with Anna-Maria, and on top of that, it has been an incredibly wonderful experience to collaborate with theater director Valborg Frøysnes.‘Valborg is, without a doubt, a passionate theater soul through and through, with her heart in the right place. I’m excited to see how Kristiansand embraces her visions and productions moving forward,” saysPirolt.