Lisa Hennig-Olsen

Lisa Hennig-Olsen (she /her, b.1990, NO) is an interdisciplinary contemporary artist based in Amsterdam/ Kristiansand/ New York. About her practice, she says:

My interdisciplinary practice moves between the ephemeral and temporal, consisting of academic research amalgamated with material and bodily investigation taking form as performance art, moving image, painting and sculpture. Probing ethical discourses, I create activist and feminist statements and edutainment through task creation, physical and spatial scores, and experiments.

Her artworks and performance engagements have been distinct, ranging from dancing with excavators in the Arctic Circle, to perfume making based on DNA-research, to a guerilla-performance protest in Mayfair on International Women’s Day.

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Researching the paradoxes and complexities of the female experience, Lisa investigates the juxtaposition of systemic patriarchy and the liberation of women. Her practice seeks to contribute to societal change, targeting learnt societal norms that do not offer equal benefits.

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Deriving from visceral sensory connections, Lisa’s artwork is both compositional and poetic as it unfolds through physicality as live art. Through precise movement and deliberate presence, she induces a power play. She presents her solemn, surrealistic work with a serious and sincere mien. A valuable research question for the artist is whether live art can keep its true value through the Cyber Gaze. Moving from the ephemeral to the temporal, her installation work asks whether residue of live-art such as scent, porcelain or paint left behind after a performance can challenge the value of residual form and become an artwork in itself.

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Her written work has strong connections to performance and live art scores, both in its manner and approach in conjunction with its unravelling. Her three most recent essays, written for the courses Critical Thinking and Discourses in Design at Parsons School of Design - New School, Mary-go-round: no virgin: NOT yours – the carousel of the cyber gaze, gender and live art, Nowness: Searching for nectar in a pathogenic uproar and The Pensive Abyss received top marks.

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Having had formal training in performance, dance, voice work and physical theatre, she has taught workshops at the Department of Dance at Vågsbygd upper secondary school, Copenhagen Contemporary Dance School, QL2 Canberra, Ungdommens Kulturmønstring (UKM), as wells as self-administered classes and workshops on both beginner and advanced level.

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Valuing cultural exchange, Lisa has undertaken internships in Australia and worked with artists in South Africa, and she is keen to further her participation in global art exchange.

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Lisa’s work is defined by three ethical pillars; sustainability, women’s rights, and animal welfare. In practice, this means that she often up-cycles found and otherwise wasted materials and objects, works with natural products and is interested in the future of sustainable material-making. Going hand-in-hand with a sustainable approach and her belief in a circular economy, Lisa refrains from using animal products in the creation of her artwork. Equality is recurrently the core of her works, especially in regards to the spectrum of difficulties and issues faced by women.

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Lisa has collaborated with a diversity of creators from the arts sector varying from a perfumer, fashion designers, clothing brands, musicians, curators, cinematographers, sculptors and performers. As a curator, Lisa has been able to take note of and promote forward-thinking contemporary artists and designers, such as live artists, spoken word artists, artists of moving image, innovation designers, ethical fashion brands, and a sustainable painter.

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Ever keen on expanding her collaborative repertoire and working towards a sustainable future, she urges any interested parties with a social conscience and innovational ideas to get in touch.