In 2018, Museum Kunst der Westküste set out to explore the vastness of the Scandinavian landscape through the innovative exhibition Norway Contemporary! The show, based on the North Frisian Island of Föhr, included the work of seven artists, each of whom showcased the somewhat melancholy motifs of darkness, cold and solitude. Rune Guneriussen (b. 1977) was one of the seven artists on display, offering playful interventions in seemingly uninhabitable landscapes: desk lamps suspended in a forest glade in One can rely on the prudence of his decisions.
After the exhibition, Guneriussen returned to Föhr as an artist- in-residence, creating new work at the intersection of installation and photography. In these site-specific pieces, luminous objects – for the most part, lamps – have been inserted into forest aisles, rocky slopes and creeks, stretches of coastlines and trees. The structures are then photographed from a slightly elevated standpoint, only for them subsequently to be taken down again, in an evocative move between transience and permanence.
The works are created according to the guiding principle that “balance is key.” He notes: “The relationship between the modern world and nature is rapidly waning. We are moving further and further away from nature and soon will no longer be part of it.” In Reminiscence of us, glowing sticks protrude from a grassy bank, lines of thread connecting the light in a web somewhere between nature and artifice. Guneriussen effortlessly unites objects and places that don’t belong together and makes the process seem authentic: blending into the dark blue hours of the passing day.
Lights Go Out: Rune Guneriussen, Museum Kunst der Westküste | Until 12 June
Image Credits:
1. RUNE GUNERIUSSENA DETACHED PROTECTOR OF ANTI-GROWTH, 2019 © Courtesy of the artist
2. RUNE GUNERIUSSEN, ENGINEERING A GRAY CITY, 2019 © Courtesy of the artist
3. RUNE GUNERIUSSEN, TRYING TO FIND A NEW HOME, 2021 © Courtesy of the artist
4. RUNE GUNERIUSSEN, ROOTS OF KINSHIP, 2019 © Courtesy of the artist
