The Garden of Verdande
I was inspired by the historical setting of Kongegaarden, which exudes lived life, to create an exhibition, which is about transcendence through time, and simultaneously creates an art experience that points to the past, the present and the future.”
The exhibition is named after Verdande, who in the Nordic mythology is the contemporary goddess of fate. By also involving her two sisters Urd (past) and Skuld (future) the tenses are deftly intertwined together in Kongegaarden and with symbols borrowed from different mythologies as well as elements from the garden.
The exhibition leads you through a sensory total installation – a kind of dream-like parallel world.
In the first room (the past) part of the floor is covered with moss. Here Urd is depicted as half a tree and half woman. Overgrown with ivy, the tears of past sorrows roll down her and fill the well underneath her with water. On the walls, baroque-inspired paintings with withered flowers and a mirror wrapped in it
oblivion of the past.
The Past
In the next room (the present), the walls are covered with ever-changing fresh scented flowers. With empty eyes and in oxidized copper stands a painting of Verdande overgrown with both fresh and withered flowers.
The Present
In the exhibition’s third room, the passage, large luminous flower heads grow and lead the way towards the next room. Two paintings, one pointing to the past and the other to the present hang on the walls.
The passage
In the last room – of the future – you meet organic metal sculptures that grow out of reflecting pools. The sculptures are cut out of metal from Elsinore cathedral’s old copper roof – and with an image of Skuld, the future is thus carved out of the past.
As symbols of little souls real butterflies are born and fly the exhibition.
The future
