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Master Project, Oslo Academy of the Arts, 2026
Pål(ine) Mikael Sterk-Hansen
Prologue is a performance research project exploring
the relationship between fashion,
costume and character.
Through written character development, a
shared wardrobe is constructed and translated into a
fashion line-up. The project shifts focus from
collection to wardrobe, where garments function as
tools for storytelling and performance. Combining
handcraft and industrial techniques, it investigates
value, materiality and embodiment. Positioned
between runway and performance, Prologue establishes a
hybrid practice where garments operate as both
aesthetic objects and performative devices.
research project driven by
written character
exploration. The work is
presented within a fashion
context, the runway, and is
therefore shaped through a
fashion lens.
I develop characters
through text and construct
a shared wardrobe for their
fictional house. From this
wardrobe, I build a fashion
line-up.
Although presented in a
fashion format, the project
is wardrobe-oriented
rather than collection-
based. Instead of
producing multiple
iterations of a single
garment, the line-up
presents distinct but
related pieces: a long
green coat beside a short
black one, a feather skirt
in two lengths. Garments
reappear across looks; a
knitted cardigan matched in
matching socks and shorts.
These repetitions nod to
the fashion way of working.
Here within performance,
these elements bind the
looks to a shared character
universe. Styling and
context become central
parts of the work.
The master is shaped by its
presentation locations: the
fashion show in
Katedralen at Oslo Academy
of the arts, the exhibition
space at
Podium and our graduate
exhibition. The project
aims to function
simultaneously as:
1. A fashion collection
2. A tool for character development
3. An instrument for
storytelling in performance
4. A work adaptable to
different spatial contexts
5. A space for personal
identity exploration
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The project began as a
continuation of Suspiria (2018,
Luca Guadagnino). ”A figure flees
home in search of utopia, finds
it, and discovers it is not
what it seems.” This narrative
(inherently tragic?) led me
toward films that produce a
lingering sense of discomfort.
I draw on the aesthetics of Roy
Andersson and Lars von Trier:
muted palettes, depressive
atmospheres, and elements of
body horror.
I engage with body horror as a
queer strategy for processing
trauma. It operates not as the
subject of the work, but as the
context in which I position it.
I understand my work as
resembling a scene from a bleak
film. As a scenophile, I draw on
feminine cinematic tropes to
construct characters. The femme
fatale, for instance, appears
in the button dress,
referencing figures from films
such as Basic Instinct, later
recontextualized within the
line-up.
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first garment developed for
this project, made during
the second semester of the
master. It emerged
directly from the
early stages of the script,
in which our main
character, Patricia, is
running through the woods
before arriving at her
destination, described as
wearing a coat that is
soaking wet.
To further develop the
garment, I expanded the
script to construct a
clearer backstory for
Patricia. She is
characterized by sadness
and fear. Emotional
states that became central
in designing the coat,
initiating what I refer to
as “research on the sad
shoulder.”
Patricia functions as the
project’s final girl, a
figure rooted in horror film
traditions. Within
queer readings of horror,
the genre becomes a site
for engaging with trauma,
where spectators recognize
parallels between cinematic
violence and lived
experience. The final girl
embodies a duality between
victim and survivor,
reflecting broader tensions
between vulnerability and
resilience.
This dual position between
victim and monster
resonates with queer
spectatorship, where
identification shifts
between figures of fear and
survival. In this context,
the final girl becomes both
a narrative device and a
point of identification.
This process of moving from text to garment, and back
to text has developed into a central working method
within the project. The garment informs the narrative,
while the narrative reshapes the garment, creating a
continuous feedback loop between writing and making.
in the 1970´s
In searching for appliqués,
something I often need in
large quantities, I began
thinking about which
household items people
might be collecting. This
led to a crowdsourcing of
buttons. I received
hundreds, possibly
thousands, from across
Norway, including multiple
boxes of identical buttons
collected in the 1970s by a
man who picked them up from
a factory who discarded
them out of a window.
In my original intention of
the hand sewing
meditation, it was supposed
to be a way for me to slow
down in my personal
journey with trauma
processing. In my daily
life I struggle with giving
myself the space to think
and reflect, and working
manually creates that
space. The process became
addictive. After one week
of sewing for 35 hours, I
developed a severe
injury in both arms,
resulting in long-term
carpal tunnel that persists
today. This forced a shift
in method. To explore
similar visual results, I
began investigating
alternative techniques for
bead application and print.
The button remains central,
but its function is
altered. Removed from its
role of opening and
closing, it takes on the
value of an expensive bead
through technique and
context.
The prints originate from
experimental try-outs. One
shirt, included in the
final line-up, features
scanned buttons printed on
photo-transfer paper. The
image is heat-pressed onto
fabric, producing a surface
that flakes or fades
depending on
temperature. Combined with
the physical buttons used
in the scan, the result
creates depth and a
trompe l’oeil effect. A
second print develops this
further through a sharper
DTG repetition of the
button motif.
This illusion reappears in
the under-armor dress,
where I explore the
relationship between
under- and over-garments.
The dress is a soft, flowing
maxi silhouette printed
with a collage of a pink
bikini layered over
metal armor, worn on top of
a black lingerie slip. It
becomes a conversation
between softness and
hardness.
In contrast, I work with the low-value technique of
the glue gun in a wool-blend dress with an open back.
Wanting the garment to move like a dragon, the glue
creates a stiff, heavy structure markedly
different from the flexibility of hand-sewn pieces.
This stiffness combined with the hard buttons creates
a scaly illution.
I collaborated with artist Vilde Espeland
Brattekås, commissioning a three-piece knitted set:
cardigan, shorts, and socks. The cardigan began as a
damaged Acne Studios piece used as a color reference.
I shared the character descriptions and a two-month
deadline, allowing the work to develop in dialogue
with the project’s narrative. The design is a
reference to a project done second year BA, a shirt
pulled over and behind the head, creating a new hole
on the back.
One character embodies shame, or death. In developing this figure, I researched German shame masks: “A badge of shame […] is a distinctive symbol worn for public humiliation or ostracism.”
I collaborated with KHIO alumna Lisa Billander,whose metal practice aligned with the project. Using the character material as a starting point, she
developed a contemporary interpretation of the shame mask.
The collection establishes a
foundation for future work
and operates as a prologue
to what is yet to come,
making the project
inherently difficult to
conclude.
The most generative aspect
of the process has been
collaboration. The shift
between working in isolation
and engaging hands-on with
garments in dialogue with
others has made the design
process feel more alive and
lived. This way of working
is now established as a core
part of my practice, and
something I will continue
beyond KHIO.
The project also raises
questions around context and
presentation. How would it
shift if it were not built
toward the format of a
fashion show? What happens
to the aesthetic when placed
strictly within performance?
Would the garments become
more “everyday,” or
more extreme? I am
interested in continuing to
challenge and dismantle the
codes of the fashion show.
What would it mean to
encounter garments within a
performance that you were
able to purchase afterwards?
A theatrical costumer
experience?
Further questions remain: Can
the driving force of a project
be to purely create work for
others? How does a text-heavy
performance practice translate
into a non-spoken format?
Reflections from the
performance at Podium
highlight questions of
presence and space. As one of
the performers, working within
an early stage of the piece,
I struggled with duration and
timing, cutting the
performance short rather
than allowing the full text
to unfold. My participation
functions as a method of working
through the material in process,
but I do not necessarily see
myself as part of the final outcome.
Prologue positions itself as a
hybrid practice between
fashion, performance, and
character construction.
Positioned between runway and
performance,
Prologue establishes a hybrid practice where garments operate as both aesthetic objects and performative devices.
Thank you to the
house of Prologue
My educators and professors:
Ida Falck Øien, Kirsti Bræin,
Stine Sjøgren, Fredrik Staum
Floen, Ingrid Pettersson &
Jennie Steen
Vilde Espeland Brattekås for
assistance with beading, knit,
support, body and soul.
Thank you to my rocks at
school, Lucas P Vallejo & Hanne Haug
Johne.
To my partner, Henning
Lundgaard, for the immense
support.
To Sunniva Moen Rørvik for
energy
For assistance: Nora Granhaug
To everyone on the show day:
Models:
Gunhild Roel Jønnum
Hedda Sandvik
Lys Linda Mushengezi
Margrethe Alida Håland
Mbuché Albeus Mabakeng
Mia Phokaewkul
Tobias Myrland
Vilja Nock
Ylva Kristine Kvalø-Hamann@
To everyone at podium:
Performers:
Hanne Haug Johne
Vilde Espeland Brattekås
Assistance:
Lucas P Vallejo &
Nora Granhaug
To Makeup:
Katarina Ljosdal Fedøy
To Hair:
Nathalie Emilie Frontéri
To assistant:
Ylva Soleim
Sources and script not included in the website version.
Some pictures may be changed.
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