À Dieu Tulli / Adjø Tulli
Main project
À dieu Tulli is my current main project. It is a digital comic and will be published for iPad. Its also made to be performed live with loud reading and music. Since its digital I’m including a music score for this entry, like in Close Closer Closest (2017). The music is composed by Eva Pfitzenmaierm and it wil be recorded by Eva and Owen Weaver (drums) and Carmen Bóveda (Cello). They will also be performing ine the live performances. In our process we will make small process sessions open for the public, mainly in Bergen. Follow my Instragram and Facebook to eventually get news about upcoming events.
Based on family stories
10 years ago I made some interviews of my aunts and grand aunt Tulli. My goal was to research my grandfather to make comics about him. The material have resulted in two comics so far, Sound of Aurora which is an performance comic and Close Closer Closest (2017) which is published on the iTunes Store for iPad. This comic is based on my grand aunt Tullies stories, and my goal is to recreate a time the interviews gave me a glimse of, to tell stories that soon is forgotten.
Story
The story is about the 19 year old girl Tulli from the small farm Strand in Dalsfjorden. A fjord on the west coast of Norway. Tulli was born with a weak heart, and in 1946 she gets the possibility to get a heart surgery. This will be one of the first heart surgeries in the country and is not without risk. À dieu Tulli will try to capture the uncertainty of facing a turning point in life. I will portrait the life on a farm on the west coast after the war. I will also illustrate the scars of the war throug Tullis brother Andreas, that has just returnes from the States. He was a war sailor and returns with a damaged heart that prevents him from heavy work. The war has disabled him. I will give the readers glims of the war and I will also recreate the heart surgery which was one of the first in Norway.
Research and artistic approach
This is a research heavy project and I travel a lot between Bergen and Dalsfjord to capture the environment but also to talk to people of the fjords that remember these times and to collect old photos and reference. The visual style of the comic will be stylised characters and realistic/impressionistic backgrounds done with pastell pencils.
Premiere
This is quite an ambitious title and it’s a lot to draw, so Im proposing spring 2025 to be the premiere of our first performance, and the digital publication will arrive same year.
Support
This project is supported by Kulturdirektoratet, Bergen kommune, Norsk illustrasjonsfond og Leser søker bok.
Updated 28.01.2023
