Julie Lillelien Porter (she/her) is an English-Norwegian artist, curator and writer based in Longyearbyen and Bergen, Norway.

She explores psychological, corporeal and existential themes, generating transformative experiences through artistic and curatorial work. A long standing question in her work is how we embody experiences of unfamiliarity. Moving from England to 1980s Norway resonates with Porter’s interest in deep stories.*

What are deep stories? Applied to her practice, they invite not just objects and ideas, but the emotional landscapes where meaning is made. Attention to deep stories opens up for perception and connection. ‘The focus on the alien, the unfamiliar, – this x-factor is characterised by several contradictions, the stranger is the known, familiar, to some extent, in the sense that the artist is conscious of a stranger and therefore approaches the stranger (...)’. Working with art is working with the un/familiar as agent.

Porter also contributes to the broader art community through committee work, cultural policy discussions and leadership roles. She was founding member of artist group and publishing site ytter.no in 2008, focusing on critical art formats and collaborative practices. Her discursive work has a consistent subtlety and many of her interviews and reviews have materialised in journals such as Billedkunst, KUNSTforum, kunstkritikk.no, kritiker.nu, amongst others. Julie Lillelien Porter is an alumna of The Glasgow School of Art, Bergen National Academy of the Arts and BI Business School.

*In Arlie Hochschild’s work, ‘deep stories’ are the emotional narratives people live by; felt truths that express experience and belonging more than fact

*Pedro Carmona-Alvarez ‘Hjemmelekser’, 2007