Derailment(Dead Man’s Grip)

Derailment (Dead Man’s Grip) is a painting project inspired by a real event: a tram that derailed in Oslo on October 29, 2024 and crashed into a shop. A vehicle designed to follow fixed tracks suddenly left its path, breaking the expected direction. For me, this moment became a powerful image of derailment — the instant when a stable system loses control and something unpredictable emerges.

The project explores the tension between structure and disruption, control and failure, movement and sudden stop. At the same time, it marks a shift in my own artistic practice: from figurative painting toward a more abstract and process-based language in which fragments, lines and traces gradually replace recognizable figures.

The paintings develop through a physical and layered process of painting, scraping, drawing and overwriting. Linear structures suggest tracks or directional systems, while circular forms interrupt them, evoking wheels, rotation, or the moment of collision.

In Derailment, the loss of direction is not only understood as collapse, but also as an opening. The paintings investigate what happens when established paths break — and how new directions can emerge from that moment of uncertainty.