The project continues Ablett’s long-term work The Fallow Year: Rest, Growth and Activism, which began in 2022. Inspired by agricultural cycles such as crop rotation and leaving land fallow, the project investigates how natural rhythms can offer alternative ways of organising life, labour, and resistance. In nature, rest is not the absence of activity, but a regenerative phase in which connections are formed, resources are replenished, and the conditions for future growth are established.

The installation is structured around five capsule-like spaces arranged along a tunnel-like passage. These spaces draw on humans’ long and entangled relationships with plant life: fabrics are dyed with leaves, bark, and roots and walls are made with lichen-covered birch branches and dried medicinal herbs, referencing the traditional Osterøy technique of brakekledning, where branches are layered to create breathable, protective structures. Visitors are invited to remove their shoes and move through the space at their own pace.

Each capsule functions as a distinct environment for reflection, drawing on phenomena from the plant and natural world. Together, they explore rest as something active, relational, and essential—not only for individuals, but for communities.

Through the installation and its associated activities, The Fallow Year questions dominant ideas of productivity and value. Who is allowed to rest? What kinds of relationships and insights become possible when we slow down? And how might rest function as a collective practice that makes space for care, resistance, and new ways of being together?

The installation is situated in the “Room for Rest,” a space overlooking the Palace Park, originally named as such when Kunstnernes Hus opened in 1930 and recently restored to this name. Within this frame, rest is considered from different artists’ perspectives, inviting visitors to reconsider rest not as withdrawal, but as a necessary and generative act.

Amber Ablett (she/her) is an artist and writer based in Vestlandet, Norway. Working across performance, text, sound, and re-enactment, her practice explores belonging and how we exist together, with particular attention to how society shapes, reflects, and constrains complex identities. Drawing on her own experiences of generational migration and Afro-European heritage, Ablett creates spaces for questioning, shared reflection, and critical engagement. Moving away from spectacle, she often uses workshops and gatherings as alternative frameworks for encountering art.

The exhibition is part of the exhibition series Undergrowth, supported by the Bergesen Foundation and Talent Norway. The project's development was supported by a residency at Munch's Atelier. The Resting Room is supported by Alcro.