Looking for O
Karen Rann
In Looking for O, you begin wherever you like and walk for as long as you want. Only the end point—day, time, and place—is fixed. Your task is to look down regularly and frequently, both to enjoy the fabric of the ground beneath your feet and to be vigilant for encounters with zero.
The rich and varied textures of city paths are now studded with discarded Os. These are the ubiquitous rubber hair bands that have fallen or been lost. They are most frequently encountered in parks, at road junctions, along cycle routes and near universities—but can appear anywhere. Often quite colourful, these small circles appear to be both meaningful: detritus as punctuation, but are also quite literally ‘something as nothing’.
You log your route and photograph your finds in situ—in 4:4 ratio. Our found imagery will be shared at the end meeting point: Kaffebrenneriet, 60 Markveien, Oslo
Photo by Artlink (Donegal, Ireland).
Karen Rann
During a British Council scholarship to the Fine Art Academy in Budapest, Hungary (1992-4), I made wings for unloved buildings. Since then, my work has focussed on overlooked places, and voids (accentuated through presence).
In the UK I have held artist residencies with Wysing Arts, the Walker Gallery in Liverpool, St Andrew’s Cathedral Inverness and the National Trust for Scotland. I lived in Germany for six years and also held a residency with Kulturtage in Oldenburg.
An obsession with how to depict hills on maps resulted in an AHRC funded PhD from Queen’s University Belfast (2018-22). This led to organising walks and exhibiting with Artlink, Donegal (2023-4).
I have shown at performance festivals in Japan, Poland and Romania. Projects have been funded through Arts Council England, Arts Council Ireland and Creative Scotland. Many of these have included walk/performance -based elements.