Recently on exhibit at SOFA 2009’s special exhibit BIGG: Breakthrough Ideas in Global Glass, Falling Water is an eloquent interactive installation. Martin Oluf Thaulow and Stine Diness Mikkelson, are Danish collaborating artists working in glass, video and sound. These artists bridge new media combinations and create a dialogue in their working process and with the audience via the spatial construct of their work.
Falling Water installation at BIGG/SOFA 2009, glass and video, with artists Martin Oluf Thaulow (left) and Stine Diness Mikkelson (right). Photo by J. L. Kronika.
“The installation consists of a cloud, made of a formation of 1000 drops of solid glass, a round video projection on the floor-surface below, and a playback of a sound-scape in surround sound.” Sounds within the video loop include a variety of rain sounds, ranging from light drizzle to heavy downpour, the buzzing of a fly, coins falling, and the movement of a train.
Stine Mikkelson creates a sense of the captured moment in her glass and mixed media work Falling Water. The idea of the “water in your face” when caught in the rain is epitomized by this work, which falls from its ceiling mounts in rich pendulous descents. In her glass she strives to share the sense of being present in the now.
Close up of Falling Glass, blown glass and mixed media by Stine Diness Mikkelson. Installation photo by Lauge Brixvold.
"Falling Water is the poesy of a frozen moment; it’s about time and presence, and how the human body connects to its surroundings.”
View detail images at: www.stinediness.dk/raining.htm
Stine “uses glass as an artistic media, and exploit[s] its unique qualities; foremost its ability to capture and freeze movements. Honesty, joy and presence are essential drives in her creative process.”
Martin created a cycle within the video sequence of the drop of water. Momentous occasions of life occur within the film loop which runs on the floor below Stine’s glass sculpture. Featuring such ephemeral moments as a bird captured in flight and the mist lifting from meadows and farm fields, the video was filmed onsite at Bornholm, and island just off mainland Denmark, in Sweden.
A direct link to stills this author viewed at BIGG/SOFA… a graceful gesture of a woman’s hand before her smile and parted lips, bird taking flight, the rich red of a barn in a rural landscape …can be seen on Martin’s website at: www.thaulow.dk/9359/NEWS
Within the play of landscape, rain, and interspersed with brief appearances of the artists, the video creates a symbolic journey through life, rich with references to universal experience.
To watch the entire video, Falling Water, with sound go to:www.fallingwater.dk
For more information about BIGG: www.sofaexpo.com/chicago/2009/lectures.htm
For more information about SOFA 2009: www.SOFAEXPO.com
For more information about Martin Olaf Thaulow: www.thaulow.dk
For more information about Stine Diness Mikkelson: www.stinediness.dk
Watch for Artist Profile articles from this author next week with Martin Olaf Thaulow and Stine Diness Mikkelson.
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