The paper production process is a metaphor of ecological circulation. The process can be expressed thus: plant/water/ paper/life. In itself, the act of creating sheets of paper can be compared with the formation of new plains on earth. No two planes are similar, each carries an imprint of its own. The imprints in the surfaces are individual. Marks never existing before live their own new life.

In Inger-Johanne Brautaset's works we experience these new expanses of the earth. Level upon level of thick paper sheets, covered with signs, are pressed together, evoking memories of occurences in the landscape: Strata of soil and clay, deposits, glaciers, archaeological excavations, petroglyphs. The works relate in a silent, very personal, and simple language of archetypes - of original forms which we know, yet never before have seen, converted into the material of paper.

The paper production process deals with quality and knowledge of origins, of biodiversity, seeds, respect for life and death, the cycles of regeneration, growth-conditions, the sowing and the harvesting, the possibility of communication between eastern and western cultures. The paper process is outside time and points incessantly towards a new cycle which might encompass new qualities of life. Brautaset's works communicate a timeless geological circulation.

One of the basic ideas behind paper art is that by creating forms with layers of pulp, one works against the concept of paper as a neutral supporting surface. This empowering of the paper material changes the recognized relationship with art. Paper is no longer the mere carrier, but is in itself a part of, or equal with, the artistic expression.

The artistic expression of Inger-Johanne Brautaset is communicated in compressed paper sheets, imprinted with the uneven, frayed and torn edges characteristic of pulp, which are built into precise, concrete, sculptural forms, wich stand separately on the floor or hang as reliefs on the wall.

The expression of these works is very Nordic in their formal language and colour, and are weighty contributions to the manifestation of paperism. Craftsmanship and artistic expression join in a synthesis in the works of Brautaset.