UPPLJÓMIN
Commission for The city of Reykjavik for Vetrarhátið January, 2022.
ENLIGHTED is an outdoor installation by Haraldur Karlsson & Litten Nystrøm for the city of Reykjavik presented at Vetrarhátið 2022 and at Elliðaárstöð in 2024. The installation consists of a number of large (man tall) luminated sculptures inspired by the transformative power of sunlight as a source of energy for both plants, humans and other organisms. The essential light which life on earth is based on and the ephemeral, intangible force that transforms into matter by the intricate process of photosynthesis in plants; turning bright rays of energy into life. Light has the ability to change an atmosphere, focus, the way we feel and our outlook on life. The installation points at the potential and the way our perception is suseptible to change and in constant flux.
A title and headline by each structure stimulates thoughts and a encourage mind-full experience of being in solitude, encapsulated and enlighed as each structure offers one person at a time to enter, reflect and visualise a specific direction and territory in their own mind, as suggested in the title. For example; ‘Visualise what you like’ or ‘visualise a happy moment to come’, ‘visualise a dream scenario’ or ‘visualise summer 5 years from now’, ‘visualise yourself as a tree’. Offering a personal interpretations and also suggesting that each viewpoint and experience is different – as a second skin we travel in – although the setting the same.
The installation points to similarities between lifeforms, our mutual dependencies of basic substances and delicate balances on earth and the need to slow down and just be – absorbing and taking responsibility for our own happiness and presence on earth. The half transparent membrane of each sculpture allowing light to shine through as the thin layer of skin between inside and outside is a metaphor for the exchange between impression and interpretation, body mind and feelings, the concrete and the intangible.
ENLIGHTED.
Outdoor installation of structures lit up with Full Spectrum light, adding a therapeuticexperience in the darkest winter months in Iceland. Commisioned by the City of Reykjavik, 2022.
Collaboration with haraldur Karlsson
