Heidi Nikolaisen (1973, Norway) lives and works in Bergen, Norway. She did her BA (2000) and MA (2002) at Bergen Academy of Art and Design, where she now is Assistant Professor in photography. Before this she studied History and Art History at the University in Oslo.
Heidi Nikolaisen was born in Bodø, Norway. Her artist practice is based in Bergen at the studio collective Flaggfabrikken.
Nikolaisen has worked with commissioned art projects for the Trondheim Municipality, Øksnes Municipality and Bergen Municipality in Norway. She has done residencies in Paris, New York and Berlin, and has exhibited at the AiM biennale in Morrocco, the Northern Norwegian Art Centre, Gallery Huuto, Helsinki, The Bergen Art Museum, Riso Contemporary Art Museum, Italy, Gallery KJUBH, Cologne.
Storytelling and mythology helps us observe ourselves, how we create meaning and relate to each other and the world. I am interested in personal histories as an opposition to the construction of recorded history. Sometimes I play with mixing fiction and facts to emphasize the mythological aspects to the stories I tell. I use narrational structures and microhistory to reveal how the individual can affect historical events, or are affected by them.
My working process often starts with finding or observing photographs, oral history, archival material etc. These findings often set me off on journeys to personally investigate a particular story, person or place, so the work also has certain relational and performative aspects to it. The works are often displayed as installations consisting of a mixture of my own and found photographs, video, text, objects and sculptures, arranged in fragmented narratives.
