This September, as part of the Cape Town Photography Festival, Artvark Gallery is hosting Norwegian photographer Inge Norum with his emotive solo exhibition, The Four Kings.

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THE FOUR KINGS

2 - 27 September

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Renowned Norwegian photographer Inge Norum's solo exhibition, The Four Kings, documents a 600-year-old oak tree in Norway over a full year of changing seasons and weather.  

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"I did not want to photograph a tree simply as it looks, but how time, light and weather change our experience of it. As the light changes, so does our way of seeing, and we create our own images and stories. Kongeeika is a living witness - and for me, a tribute to nature's ability to reveal itself anew," says Inge Norum.

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The Four Kings is a photographic project documenting a single oak tree with four trunks in Kongeeikene.

Estimated to be between 500 and 600 years old, the tree was photographed over the course of a year.

Now at the height of its life, it may, under favourable conditions, endure for centuries more, yet it already bears visible signs of wear. The causes remain uncertain, but this project does not seek a scientific explanation. Instead, it takes the tree as a visual and existential point of departure.

“For many years, I have regarded this tree as an extraordinary natural presence. Since 2018, I have consciously turned to subjects that I believe carry significance for the future – forms that embody beauty, vulnerability, and complexity.”The Four Kings is both a tribute and a quiet warning. It documents the tree as an artwork in itself, while also suggesting a longer temporal arc in which it may come to reflect our own relationship to – and destruction of – the natural world. The tree remains still as its surroundings shift. In this, it becomes both witness and mirror.

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Activations: 

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Wednesday 2 September - Opening Night (free entry, enjoy a glass of complimentary wine)  

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Sunday 6 September - Walkabout & Live Performance. Featuring an artist walkabout followed by a special djembe drum performance with Inge Norum and guest musicians Dizu Plaatjies, Jamie Jupiter, Carsten Rasch, Derek Craig, and Manan.  

Tickets available from Quicket: R250 (includes a light meal and a glass of wine at the Courtyard).  

https://www.quicket.co.za/events/387359-live-percussive-performance-at-artvark-gallery/#/