Helmets for India 

Jorunn Sannes was invited to create an artistic expression on a motorcycle helmet as one of seventeen international artists. The helmets are provided by motorcycle manufacturer Royal Enfield and will be auctioned to raise funds for road safety initiatives in India. 

“I had an idea that I wanted to use an image of a brain scanning as a base for my helmet decoration, showing the inside of the head we want to protect,” she explains.

As part of her research, she found a colorful scanning that showed different parts of the brain activated, and her first idea was to paint with oil colors directly onto the helmet.

“I started to take away all the loose parts on the helmet and rub it down as much as possible to make a fine base for the painting. But while working, I saw another way to express which was even more meaningful; to make a kind of cap as an outside protector.”

Educated as a textile designer, Jorunn chose to make a wool cap using the traditional handcraft methods of embroidery seen on Norwegian folk costumes, which also inspired the colors. The craftmanship and colours also created a connection and a tribute to the many beautiful textiles of India.

Read more and follow the initiative on www.helmetsforindia.com
 

About Jorunn Sannes 

Jorunn Sannes is a genre-breaking and explorative artist working with various media, and in Snøhetta, she works primarily with the interaction between public art and architecture. 

She trained as a textile artist at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (former Statens kunst og håndverksskole) in 1985, but after her first stay abroad during a scholarship in Mexico in 1989, she started expanding her field.
 
Since then, in addition to a wide range of her own projects, she has collaborated with architects to create large-scale public artworks integrated into buildings, such as the exterior stone wall of the new library in Alexandria, Egypt, and the roof of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in Oslo.

www.jorunnsannes.no