Before I left the library the day before, I got done to pre-book a 9-10am slot today. And I also got a library card made so that I can borrow books on St. Olav.
I proceeded to the Kuntindustrimuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts). This museum has historical and modern collections of furniture, silver, textiles, etc. Their pride has to be the tapestries of Hannah Ryggen and Synnøve Anker Aurdal. And the glass creations of Benny Motzfeldt.
Hannah Ryggen
She was born in Malmö, Sweden on 21 March 1894. She first studied to be a teacher before taking up painting. In 1923, she married a Norwegian painter Hans Ryggen and for mant years, they made their home in Ørlandet at the mouth of Trondheim Fjord. It was in Norway that she began tapestry weaving. She was self-taught. She was made the Knight of Order of St. Olav and awarded The Prince Eugen Gold Medal. She died in Trondheim on 2 February 1970.
Synnøve Anker Aurdal
She was born in Oslo in 1908. She grew up in Lillehammer. She married the painter Leon Aurdal, and later the painter Ludvig Eikass. She studied with the sisters of the Lillehammer parsonage weofing school and at the NAtional Colllege fo Art and Design in Oslo. Though her work originates from the Norwegian weofing tradition, she introduced nonfigurative designs into her tapestries. She was made Knight of Order of St. Olof and awarded The Council's Honoury Income for Artists, The Price Eugen Gold Medal and the Norwegian Arts Council's Honorary Prize. She died in 2000.
Benny Motzfeldt
She was an innovator among Norwegian glass artists. She began her career as a designer at Norway's largest glassworks - Hadeland - where she developed in new directions. She transformed imprefections in the glass-making process, the air bubbles into the basis of artistic language. For her, glass was a material just as rich in creative potentials as any other material or medium. By using materials such as metal threads and fibres within glass forms, she ceated personal, artistic objects. Shortly before her death in 1995, she donated her entire collection to the museum.
Other than these permanent exhibitons, I got to see the one on Noah's Ark. This exhibition displayed cloaks used by priests, jewels, clothings and items used by the people then. Form this exhibiton, I learnt that wedding dresses used to be the same as other dresses. The only diffirence was the accessories worn with the dress. And women used to wear white and men wear black to funerals. But that all changed later because white was considered a color of resserection.
After this this museum, I tried to find the Art Gallery which was supposed to be nearby. But I couldn't find it at all. Later in the day, I met up with Wei's housemate's sister (the German), she told me that she couldn't find that either. I will try asking the tourist office later. The other museum of comtemporary art - Trondhjems Kunstforening - I will visit it this Sunday when there is a guided tour though I am not sure if it is in English.
After my 'mini-tour' of art museums, I went over to the synagogue. But it was closed. The doors were just shut! Later I learnt that I could still enter by pressing some buttons next to the door. There should be some instructions. Will try that again.
By then, I was almost noon. Since I was going to meet up with Wei in town, I was left with not much time to go another museum or wander too far off. So I went shopping again and got Mike 2 really cool shirts for 35sing dollars. Though when Wei saw them, he told me that they were something that he would never wear. But he is a conservative dresser. Met up with Wei in the hotel room at about 1pm. He submitted most of his things for the residence permit though they don't really seem to know what to do about the heath insurance thingy. The guidelines given by the school indicated that all the foreign students have to do
is to pay a nominal fee to get it , but the international office and the police station haven't got any clue about it. Information changes all the time, depending on who's on duty i guess.
Then we proceeded to go get his hiking boots. The goretex exterior with vibram soles. We got a real good bargain too. The boots that cost 1799krs (450Sing) were on sale for 999kr (250 sing). We quickly grabbed them coz there was only a pair left for his size with the good soles. The rest were some generic soles.
I also found a nice girly dress to wear to either Peng Ann's or Jane's wedding. After that, we went to have an early dinner at the Egon restaurant. Wei had a rib eye steak with salad and a baked potato for 40sing and I ahd their pizza buffet for 25Sing. The portion for Wei's meal wasn't huge, he also 'stole' a piece of my pizza. Then we came back to the hotel as it was raining. Saw a beautiful rainbow - the third one I have seen since I came. Wei left the hotel for his apartment at 7pm. He would reach at about 8pm. I was really tired yesterday and went to be before 10pm and didn't get up till about 8am today. ZZzzzz...................................!
Posted by Tien-Ling at July 24, 2003 08:56 AM | TrackBack