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© Willibald Storn, Frihet mot frihet, fra serien Frette Suiten, 2015–2022. Preus museum Collection.
His series entitled the Frette Suite, photographed between 2015 and 2022, is a series of still life motifs of wildflowers taken in the municipality of Etne in Sunnhordaland. His photos depict foxgloves, bluebells, daisies, thistles, buttercups and dandelions. In several of them bouquets of flowers have been arranged in milk carton vases and inscribed with the words "freedom against freedom".
In other photos the flowers have been ignited and they are engulfed in yellow flames. This series is based on the fact that Storn had noticed that there were not very many birds in Etne. The wild flowers had almost disappeared and the area was dominated by a monoculture. He photographed flowers along the roadside and arranged them in chaotic and colourful bouquets. According to Storn, the inscription "freedom against freedom" refers to how human freedom and needs destroy the freedom of others - in this case the habitat of birds and insects. The series was motivated by his sadness about the climate and the rapid development of human greed which is destroying something that nature has spent millions of years creating.
This text has been taken from an essay written for the exhibition catalogue by Christine Hansen, the co-curator of the exhibition.