Faghandler

On the bus into Oslo, after I arrived in Norway on Monday, they had a screen in the front running repeating ads. One of the ads for a "faghandler," and the image they showed was a chainsaw. A little scarey, I think!

Spent today, as yesterday, helping Dana put up her show at the art gallery in Moss, where a show called "The Idea of North" opens on Sunday. The show features Canadian, Norwegian, and Icelandic artists. Dana's piece is an audio installation, but there is a visual element: arrows showing the Arctic currents on a wall. The Norwegian explorer Nansen figured he'd just hop those currents, like the cute little frogs in Frogger hopping on logs floating down the stream. (An interesting side note: tomorrow I'm going to an art opening for something called "Kiss the Frog"!)

Anyway, I climbed very high up on ladders today, while performing delicate operations that necessitated the use of both hands. And I have a serious fear of heights. I had to really concentrate and get in a sort of zen-like mood. I felt very proud. I wish writing had something like that involved -- where you do something physical and practical, and at the end you look at a wall and see a lot of arrows.

This is the third show I've helped Dana put up. It's fun, though it's always just before the show opening, so it's also very tense. The first show involved climbing not quite as high on a ladder and wiring 16 little speakers on the walls; the second show mainly involved painting a lot of walls white, and then filling up an old library card catalogue with catalogue cards.

Tomorrow, I will wander Oslo a whole bunch and reward myself after doing so much work. Oh, also I've been working on my novel. It often takes being a long way from Toronto to get me writing.

Over and out.