SLEEP
Gallery Otto Plonk, Bergen 1997.
Gallery Lista Lighthouse 1997.
RAM Gallery, Oslo 1998.

Props: Balls, technical equipment.

14 balls lie spread out on a floor. The balls are varnished in white paint. From each ball comes the sound of heavy breathing. All the sounds come from a soundtrack of 14 children sleeping.

1-2000 CIRCLES
Gallery s.e, Bergen 1999.
Tromsø Society of Fine Art 2000.
Gallery Giga, Stord 2001.
Gallery Finse 2002.
The Stenersen Museum, Oslo 2002.
Festival Exhibition, Vossajazz 2003.
Bomuldsfabriken Art Hall, Arendal 2003.

Props: Sketches on paper.

This was a sketching project that started on 27 January 1999 and ended 2000 days later. On the first day one circle was outlined on a piece of paper. The next day two circles partly overlapping. The third day: three circles. The project continued along these lines for 2000 days.

ALL
The Museum of Natural History, Bergen 2000.
Rogaland Art Center, Stavanger 2000.
Tromsø Society of Fine Art 2001.

Prop: Polished brass sphere.

The sphere stands on a small pedestal placed on the floor in the middle of the room. The sphere mirrors those who look at it. This work was made at the same time as the book All was published. The book has 116 black pages, with text on only one of the pages. These two works are strongly connected.

The text from the book All:
Planck time began immediately after the Big Bang. The explosion took place approximately 15,000,000,000 years ago, and the Planck time was the first 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 second following that. The entire universe was then contained by an area with a diameter less than 0.1 mm. It was all there. The same way the seed harbors the “thought” of how it will become a flower, one could say that the idea of us all and everything that has been, is, and will be, was there, in that tiny little volume of space. 15,000,000,000 years later a small part of that substance would end up as you and me. Did the substance know this? Did it know about you and me? Did it know that I would be writing this? Did it know that you would read this now?

SPHERE AND SPHERE
Bergen Society of Fine Art 2000–2001.
The Stenersen Museum, Oslo 2002–2003.
Bomuldsfabriken Art Hall, Arendal 2003–2004.

Props: Plaster sphere, engine and other technical equipment, plexiglas cylinder, wooden plank with text.

A white sphere made of plaster lies on a plate which has been inserted into a cylinder shaped “pedestal” of Plexiglas. In the lower part of the “pedestal”, the part that is carrying the sphere, the glass is tinted. The upper part, housing the sphere, is transparent. Inside the cylinder there is an engine run by a timer. The engine very slowly turns the sphere around its own axis. It is impossible to see it move. The timer is regulated by a satellite in order to be accurate. The engine runs on electricity, but it has a generator in case of a power break. The cylinder is placed on a circular plate with the words Sphere and Sphere. This sphere turns around its own axis once per sidereal year. A sidereal year is the time it takes for earth to orbit the sun once (365.2564 days). The sphere was placed here on 26 November 2000 at 18.00, and is going to stay for a sidereal year.

PROJECTIONS
Invitational, Spike Island, Bristol 2001.
The Stenersen Museum, Oslo 2002.
Gallery s.e., Bergen 2002.

Props: Slide show of stars, projectors, wire, round glass plates, sand, DVD, poppy seeds, butterfly wings, the sound of a child sleeping, the sound of slow heart beats.
Seven projections of stars displayed on a variety of materials and against different sounds.

PROJECTION No. 1
Slide of the star Delta in Orion projected on sand that hasn’t seen light in a long time. (The sand was found under the floor in the Spike Island Gallery, Bristol).
PROJECTION No. 2
Slide of the star Rigel projected on a film showing an elephant ear.
PROJECTION No. 3
Slide of the star Melnik 34 projected on poppy seeds.
PROJECTION No. 4
Slide of the star HR4796A projected on the wing of a butterfly.
PROJECTION No. 5
Slide of the star SN1997cj projected on 178 million years old sand found under the North Sea.
PROJECTION No. 6
Slide of a blue star in M15 projected on the sound of a child sleeping.
PROJECTION No. 7
Slide of the star IRS4 projected on the sound of slow heart beats.

IMAGINARY ELEPHANTS
Festival Exhibition, Vossajazz 2003.
Charlottenborg Exhibition Hall, Copenhagen 2003.
The Stenersen Museum, Oslo 2004.
Summer Exhibition, Seljord Society of Fine Art 2004.
Gallery Giga, Stord 2005.

Props: sketches on paper.

An installation of drawings made with closed eyes. Kurt drew them while thinking of elephants. Every drawing is attached with a little pin at the top of the sheet, to let it hang slightly loose. More than a thousand sketches were produced from 2003 to 2004. At most the installation consisted of 600 drawings. A book has been made, with 24 of the drawings.

OPEN EYES AND CLOSED EYES
Hordaland Art Center, Bergen 2004.
RBS Gallery, London 2004.
Le Lieu, Centre en Art Actuel, Québec 2005.
Rom for rom, Sørlandet Art Museum, Kristiansand 2006–2007.

Props: Red foil, frost or fabric, reading of text from a CD, custom-made glasses.

The windows are covered with red foil. In front of the foil is frost or a white fabric. This makes a reddish light in the room. At the same time what’s outside of the room is blurred. The audience can use custom-made glasses that make the room appear foggy and even redder. A reading goes on in an endless loop. It narrates about two different conditions: Open eyes, when everything is unpleasantly bright and almost all memories are gone, and closed eyes, when everything is hazy, red and has a feeling of déjà vu. This way the story moves in and out of the two conditions. The text can also be found in a book. Here it is repeated more than 30 times in a closely written book of 256 pages.

BREATH
Beitelen, Dale.

Props: Gold leaf.

Two texts are inscribed with sand and coated with gold leaf in the mountain Beitelen in Dale. One of them is down by Dalegarden, the other one up near Norafjellet. The texts also make the basis for the book Breath. A map to the location of the texts can be found at www.zeth.no.

BREATH 2
49 homes in Norway 2006-2013.

Props: 14 stones with golden inscription.

Seven pairs of stones with the breath-texts inscribed circulate among private homes in Norway for seven years. They are to stay in every home for a whole year. The stones are primarily meant for the people living there, but it is possible for others to come and see the art work. At www.zeth.no there is information about the location of the stones at all times, and instructions on how to contact the present “owners” if one would like to catch sight of them.

TRILOGY
Bergen Art Museum 2007.

Props: Three white plinths, burnt sticks, sound.

Three piles of burnt sticks are placed on three plinths. From the piles come different sounds. From one pile comes bird song, from another a story about carbon, as seen from a scientific point of view and from the third pile comes the sound of children’s laughter. A CD has been produced with the three different sound images.

TWELFTH CONVERSATION
Vestland’s Exhibition 2003.
New Horizons, Manx Museum, Isle of Man 2005.
New Horizons, Hå Old Vicarage 2005.

11 minutes.
Camera: Jan Inge Skogheim.

The video Twelfth Conversation started with the performance Twelfth Conversation which Kurt presented in the Munkebotn valley in Bergen on 29 October 2002. It is twilight and Kurt is standing in the middle of a small lake. It is raining. He has water up to his waist. Slowly he moves his hands over the water without touching it.

RECEIVE
Gallery Gathe, Bergen 2005.
Short film festival, Grimstad 2006.
Best of Grimstad, Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger 2006.
Scandinavia, Danish TV Channel 2006.
Minimalen, Short film festival, Trondheim 2007.

In cooperation with Bjarte Mørner Tveit.
2 minutes.
Camera: Anne Dorthe Kalve.
Producer: Bjarte Mørner Tveit, Piraya Film as.

Kurt is lying on his back. He opens his mouth, and shortly after appears a beam from above, with something grey, resembling sand. The mouth stays open and fills up rapidly. The grey runs out over his face and down on the plate he is lying on. At last it stops. Kurt stays motionless for a while.

SECOND CONVERSATION
Tromsø Society of Fine Art 2006.
Bergen Art Museum 2007.
Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo 2007.

48 minutes.
Camera: Anne Dorthe Kalve.
Producer: Bjarte Mørner Tveit, Piraya Film as.

A series of five to seven people in prayer. They are all are filmed with heat seeking camera. The actions in the film are shot in the room most common for the specific activity. The individuals are a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu and an Indian. Three or four projections are utilized in the video installation. Various parts of the films are shown simultaneously, so that the different conversations meet.

FIRST MEMORY
Bergen Art Museum 2007.
Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo 2007.

26 minutes.
Camera: Anne Dorthe Kalve.
Producer: Bjarte Mørner Tveit, Piraya Film as.

Several people are portrayed under water. They all look into the camera. They try to maintain this position as long as possible. Between every portrait comes a little black sequence before the next portrait.

LIGHT
Royal Carribbean Arts Grant 5 years, Kunstnernes Hus 2007

In cooperation with Bjarte Mørner Tveit.
56 minutes.
Camera: Anne Dorthe Kalve
Producer: Bjarte Mørner Tveit, Piraya Film as.

Kurt is standing in the woods at nightfall. Out of his mouth comes an oval, shining object. At first daylight is still so bright that the light from the mouth is faint. Gradually the wood gets darker, and the light from the mouth seems stronger. At last it is so dark in the woods that the light from the mouth dominates.