what is the money-to-life exchange rate the market price of a license to extract reality the selling price for sentience and the vast unknown—the energies beyond human that we live within?

Eline McGeorge explores the complex dynamics between humans and nature in an era where the impact of human activity on the environment is increasingly evident. Her exhibition, Fieldnotes – to be part to be many, at Femtensesse features a selection from over 500 watercolor that are part of an artistic research project initiated in 2018.

McGeorge’s watercolors, directly drawn from her sketchbooks, capture her first-hand encounters with diverse environments, including a vast coal mining landscape in Colombia, indigenous succulents growing in diamond-mined sand in Namibia, lichen species adapted to heavy metal runoff from mines in Røros, and bird cliffs in Northern Norway. The double-page spreads from her sketchbooks reveal a profound connection with these sites, serving as intimate ‘fieldnotes,’ where the flowing watercolors allow motifs—such as eyes, hands, leaves, and seeds—to transform and merge. 

During the exhibition, McGeorge will launch her new book, crwa, a travel journal that combines texts, video stills, and watercolors. The book interweaves fictional and factual narratives, offering deeper insights into her environmental observations. An artist talk, delving into this material, with McGeorge and art historian Marit Paasche, will take place on the exhibition’s final day, Saturday, November 2nd at 1pm.

The exhibition at Femtensesse coincides with McGeorge’s solo exhibition at Kunstnerforbundet in Oslo this fall, where she will present works in various media that expand upon her fieldnotes, including painting, video and tapestry.

Eline McGeorge (b. 1970, Asker) lives and works in Oslo, Norway. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Goldsmiths University of London. Recent solo exhibitions include Here Between Worlds (2020), and On Joint Flight Lines (2018), Hollybush Gardens, London; As Spaces Fold, Companions Meet, Oslo Kunstforening (2016), Oslo; and Among Familiar Strangers and Surveilled Places, Fotogalleriet, Oslo (2007). Her work has been featured in group exhibitions, such as fluene får øye på oss i det høye gresset, Femtensesse, Oslo (2024); Our Silver City, 2094, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham (2021); Future Knowledge, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford (2018); Rivers of Emotion, Bodies of Ore, Trondheim Kunsthall, Trondheim (2018); Ode to a washcloth, hymn to a tiger; Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo (2017) and Stavanger Kunsthall, Stavanger (2018); and We Are Living on a Star at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden (2014). 

This exhibition is kindly supported by Arts Council Norway and Oslo Municipality.