f o s s s s s s s (2026)
by Christine Caldino Vik Bratvold
100 aluminum tags, steel wire.1.7 m (H) x 0.9 m (W)
a waterfall of change
fosssssss is an participatory art installation that transforms personal reflections into a collective visual current. Taking its name from the Norwegian word for waterfall—foss—the title itself mimics the rushing, tactile sound of falling water.
The heart of the artwork lies in open dialogue and community connection. People are invited to sit, pause, and converse about the experience of navigating change. Participants are asked to choose a single word, phrase, or sentence that encapsulates their feelings, responses and thoughts about transition. The “words of change” are hand-engraved onto individual aluminum tags and systematically added to the steel wire frame, growing like a physical stream of consciousness. Individual thoughts, fears, and hopes slowly combine to form a massive, unified current.
In fosssssss there is a tension between the fleeting and the tangible. Change and transformation are inherently vulnerable—something we experience but cannot hold or fully see. Through the act of hand-engraving, these thoughts, feelings, and experiences are given physical form in hard, enduring aluminum. What is shifting and in motion becomes lasting—something that can be touched, read, and witnessed.
Inside the gallery space, the visitors are invited to touch the work and play with the shadows. Others may choose to quietly read the accumulated wisdom and vulnerability of the community.