Artist statement

Stuart Ian Frost is a British artist based in Norway. 

In his artistic practice, the notion/idea “place” stands central. It functions both as a theoretic and creative starting point. Through the whole of his artistic career, he has sought out specific places in various countries and carried out so-called site-specific projects. More specifically, he has been searching for each chosen places identifiable characteristics/qualities such as history, topography, architecture, culture, and specifically raw material etc. Almost like “searching through ruins”, he looks for anything, literally anything that might be of interest.  

These relationships in differing scales are generally the basis for the development of his artwork. The interest for the landscapes particularities and the natural objects physical characteristic and exclusiveness to one environment – with their associated culture, myths, and history are a general characteristic feature with his production. He is consistently faithful to the raw materials distinctiveness and inner characteristics, while at the same time putting them through extensive procedures of transformation. The thought is that this concept will make it possible to see raw materials in a new way. There is in other words a type of alienating process, which contributes to sharpen ones perceptions. At first glance, what is encountered is not what on further investigation is revealed.

A quote from Richard Dawkins (evolutionary biologist) can also give an understanding and illustrate this approach: “There is an anesthetic of familiarity, a sedative of ordinariness, which dulls the senses and hides the wonder of existence...But we can recapture that sense of having just entered in on a life by looking at our own world in unfamiliar ways”