Odette Nikgol: Drawing and Animating in Norway

You are right; first I studied at the Bustan Armenian School, then at Shahnaz Gymnasium. I have always been involved in painting, so I received my higher education at the department of plastic arts, drawing, photography and design of Tehran University. In the 1970s I studied also instructional technology at Iran’s Television Educational School in Tehran, which consisted of a collected program created by the American universities for Iranian students. Then I continued my studies at Farabi University in Tehran, earning a master’s degree in animation and filmmaking.

While studying, I was a painting teacher and animator at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, then I worked in Iranian Radio and Television and for two years I taught photography and animation film at Tehran’s Al-Zahra University. I came to Norway to continue my education in cultural diversity and in-depth gender training. In 2001-2006 I studied media and communication studies and interdisciplinary cultural studies majoring in gender research and finally in 2012-2013 I studied Public Sector Interpretation. Here I also worked in various places, including teaching at Dragvoll Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, where I was a guest lecturer of the knowledge of the influence of the colors in the teaching methods.

After an active Armenian community life in Tehran was it difficult to move to a country with very few Armenians?

Your drawings are mostly inspired from Persian folk art, am I right?

Yes, you are, combined with the look of a child. I am inspired by Iranian folk art like, miniature, and its arrangement of space in non-linear perspective, in a two-dimensional plane. Persian miniature developed and formed within Iranian ancient history and stories, and the highest point in the tradition was reached in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. Politically there have been many events in this country that leave its mark on each individual and especially those who practice and think artistically. The 1979 revolution changed the dynamics of the art scene, changing all artistic practices such as film, painting, literature and music in Iran. I am inspired from children’s art and the way children express themselves, with the help of colors, simple shapes and informal dimension and perspective. Children’s viewpoint on the world has a common feature with miniature art, and the blending of these two artistic worlds helps me to express my thoughts to my surroundings. This is an artistic form that I feel at ease with. As I work with children, I use their colors. Abstraction and animation are very close to me. When I paint, I figure out animated movements. Some of my computer drawings (Simorgh Bird; Happy Cleanliness; Environment and Nature) are on display at various exhibitions.

You have made more 15 animated films in Iran and three in Norway. Some years ago participating in Roshd film festival in Tehran I was delighted to reveal to the world Iranian animation. What about the Norwegian one?