Tine Poppe
Tine Poppe is an artist photographer living and working in Oslo. Her practice focuses on bringing attention to social, political, existential and environmental issues through art or documentary photography. Her work has been published and exhibited around the world, and have been purchased by both governmental and corporate art collections in Norway and abroad. Poppes was awarded Lens Culture Critics Choice Awards 2023 for the Gilded Lilies series.
Kunstverket is representing Tine Poppes series Gilded Lilies. In this series, more so than in her previous ones, Poppe highlights her commitment to the environment. Presented are portraits of flowers set with a backdrop of undefined landscapes. The landscapes are photos taken by Poppe on her travels in areas affected by the climate crisis. The flowers portrayed are bought from her local flower shop in Oslo. They are grown in industrial greenhouses, far both from its natural habitat and nature itself. In addition, the flowers are transported miles to a shop to be available to us as any other object. Even nature has become a piece in the capitalistic system. These floral portraits appear as almost dystopian interpretations of a modern still life- a good symbol of the climate changes.
Gilded Lilies has a thought-provoking message. The photos underlines how brief "beauty" is experienced and how it is defined by today’s standards. The need in our time to fight the visible signs of ageing is a brutal battle against nature and time and is not only disruptive to nature but also the relationship between people. Poppes project shows first the industrial aspects in the flower industry and the artificial processes used to reach perfection. Second, she spotlights our role in the destruction of landscapes, only for our own vanity.
