What is a body? Where does the body end? Can it stretch, expand beyond its own limits, like rings in water activated by one center? Inhale, exhale. The body carries its life, its history. It makes impressions on the surroundings and the relationships it touches, and is itself marked by touch. Inhale, exhale. The body leaves something behind, and takes something else with it. How to exist in a body that is in constant transformation and development? What exactly is a body in this time where we haven’t been able to physically meet or touch each other, when our shared experiences arise through screens? How do we relate to ourselves, others and our surroundings through our bodies?
In her exploration of these questions Kari Ann Lending Kleiveland (b. 1993) experiments with materials and mediums as for example textile, bean bags, wood, video, painting and performance. She is particularly interested in malleable mediums and materials that change with time or by touch. Scenography and costumes are valuable inspiration sources. Her background in dance and choreography provides a framework for her practice and a curiosity to approach the body and movement from different angles. Her processes are dynamic, her projects overlap, never end. She looks for questions rather than answers.
Improvisation, in the form of movement and in experimenting with encounters between different materials and bodies, is crucial to her process. Impulses that initiate change. Therefore, she had her base in Paris in 2014, in Helsinki in 2018 and in Reykjavik in 2019. She has also studied art in Stavanger (Kunstskolen i Rogaland, 2014-2016), completed her BFA in Trondheim Academy of Fine arts (2020), and is now completing my MA in KMD, Bergen. Another way of improvisation is contact with other people, both in short meetings, collaborations and lasting relationships. In 2018 she founded Studio K, a project space and gallery located in Time Municipality, with an ambition to create an environment where different people and practices can meet and connect. In 2017 and 2018 she worked as a choreographer, and collaborated with director Viktorija R. Davies, conductor Liv Hugstmyr Særheim and the youth choir VIVA in the productions Disneyforestilling (2017) and the 50th anniversary show Reverse & Reunion (2018). The latter was shown in Sandnes Kulturhus and was a production that included around 200 performers.
Kari Ann is a member of BKFR and NBK.
2020 – 2022 MA, Bergen Academy of Fine Arts, KMD, UiB, Bergen
2017 – 2020 BFA, Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts, NTNU, Trondheim
2019 University of the Arts BFA2, Reykjavik, Iceland
2018 Academy of Fine Arts, Uniarts, BFA2, Helsinki, Finland
2016 – 2017 Intro Academy, Communication, Creative thinking and Project Management, Stavanger
2014 – 2016 Visual Arts, Rogaland Art School, Stavanger
2014 Art History and French, Gateway College, Paris, France
2010 – 2013 Dance and Choreography, Lundehaugen/Vågen VGS, Sandnes Norway
2022 – Art consultant, coordinator of exhibition program, Fotland Mølle Time Kommune
2022 – Board member Performance Art Stavanger (PAS)
2018 – Founder of Studio K; studio, project- and gallery space, Time Municipality, Norway
2019 Curatorial group, Galleri KiT, Trondheim
2018 Choreographer for the 50th anniversary-show for the VIVA choir, Reverse and Reunion, Sandnes Kulturhus
2017 Choreographer for the VIVA choir’s Disney Show, Sandnes Kulturskole, Sandnes
2017 Traces of Movement, ØST – Tou Scene, Stavanger
2021 Hindsight is 2020, Galleri KiT, Trondheim
2019 Remember, Laugardalur Swimming Pool, Reykjavík, Iceland
2018 Ex X Ex, Tasku Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
2018 Constructed Space, Tasku Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
2018 Soft Art, textile exhibition, Studio K, Kvernaland
2018 Stay another day, Galleri KiT, Trondheim
2018 II<<0>>II , Galleri KiT, Trondheim
2017 That Poetry, Galleri KiT, Trondheim
2016 Brutalt Taco, Tou Scene, Stavanger
2015 Juicy, Rogaland School of Fine Arts, Stavanger
2014 Installation, Rogaland Art Center, Stavanger
2021 Workshop for children and youths, collaboration with Time Kommune and Time Kulturskole
2019 Workshop, Den Kulturelle Spaserstokken, Time Municipality, Norway
2017 Embellishment, Viben Yoga studio, Forum Jæren
2015 Flytt bar, interactive space, Rogaland School of Fine Arts, collaboration w/Millard Paulsé and Håvard Sagen
2018 Sirdalmagasinet, 4th issue p. 20-21, Skaper kunst på lag med naturen, by Bethi Dirdal
2018 Jærbladet, (paper) 22.06.2018, page 16/(internet) 20.06.18, page 23-38: Kari Ann satsar på kunstdraumen,
by Jorunn Erga Steinsland
2021 Kulturstipendet, Klepp Kommune