Who do I talk to about saving the world?
It’s been a while. Things went from crazy to insane in 2024, and I haven’t had the headspace or time to sit down and write. I have, however, made another exhibition, opening next Friday, January 17th.
I’m calling it, “Who do I talk to about saving the world?”.
I was struggling with coming up with the title, because I knew I wanted to show my series of watercolors, “This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal” (which I’ve written about here: https://hanneugelstad.substack.com/p/red-line). Compared to my paintings on canvas, these watercolors are realistic and grotesque, painted after screenshots of photos and videos from the ongoing genocide in Gaza. And I didn’t understand the relationship between the different pieces I had been working on this past year, I just knew that I had to show this series in particular.
But then I was talking to my partner, because I also fell in love this past year, and I did not see that coming, and I definitely did not have time for that, but here we are, and I’m very happy + also freaking out from time to time, because love and being vulnerable and showing up and risking it all is quite scary too. But returning to my point, I was talking to my beau about this problem, that I didn’t understand what I was doing, and he said to me: you are creating this work because you care.
And that’s when it clicked into place for me, and I remembered this phrase that I’ve been working on since 2019/2020-ish. I made this poster for a climate protest, after thinking a lot about how to fix this gigantic problem that is threatening everything, that we actually know how to solve, and yet for some reason, the we are just not doing it.
I also made some of my very first unsanctioned art based on this phrase, using a very basic stencil and a couple of cans, in my childhood town in 2021:
I got so nervous using a spray-can in public that I quickly got more into paste-ups, but that’s a story for another time.
Things were already looking bleak on the global scale back then in the pre-pandemic era, and then things as we all know took a turn for the worse. Five years later, the world is burning, we’re over a year into a live-streamed genocide, and I don’t know how many dead children I’ve seen, and we are breaking, over and over again, because why haven’t we been able to stop this? We know how to solve this, and yet for some reason, we are just not doing it.
So how do we change that?
Well, I believe in the power of the people. I belive in love and solidarity, I believe in kindness, and the good in people. I believe that where your focus goes, your energy flows, and if you want to change anything, you have to create more of what you want. Weapons of war can never create peace. Oppressing others can never create freedom for yourself. And if you want to see more love in the world, you have to love more. It’s that simple, and that hard, because it is so fucking hard to hold on to your humanity in times like these. So don’t go at it alone. Find others.
I promise you, you are not alone.
If you are based in Oslo, I would be very happy to see you this Friday. Everything I’m showing is new work that I made in 2024 (and some in 2025) which includes 14 paintings on canvas, my watercolor series, textile works, works on found objects, papier-mâché, and photo-documentation of my unsanctioned street art from Oslo, Tartu, Nürnberg and Paris.
I will also release a limited edition print of the series “Aaron - This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal”, where all the profits will go to https://palestinakomiteen.no and https://legerutengrenser.no.
For the vernissage, I’m very fortunate to have kind and talented friends, who will perform live music and poetry for us from 19.30:
This is Mari (the singer) on Spotify:
You can find Eleanor here on substack, and I highly recommend that you do:
I hope you can make it, and if you can’t come Friday, I’ll be in the gallery Saturday and Sunday from 13-15:)
Adresse: Street Art Oslo, Helgesens gate 46, 0553 Oslo