Graphic design and illustration
at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts

Close to death

  • Why does death not have a larger place in the public sphere?
  • For five weeks, the students at the second year of the master program worked with a subject close to us all, but rarely discussed. Death.
  • Throughout the project, the students met people that worked close to death, and the project was concluded with an exhibition at Grafill.
  • - It has been challenging because there is such a fine line. To try and get close enough without it getting too personal. Perhaps its impossible for it not to get too personal. We are all going there after all. With death as subject matter I was very worried about doing something banal, says Kristine Knapstad. She is one of the students who took part in the course.
  • Linn Olsson was also part of the course, and she ended up doing a book named 'Is there a poem after death?'
  • - Are we really afraid of death, or are we afraid of life without those we love? Trying to visualize something this important and all-consuming has at times been overwhelming. There is consensus in our class that this has been the most mentally exhausting project of our time here at KHiO, she says.