Dear Sheddists,a little way along the harbour from the Danish Architecture Centre lies The North Atlantic House, a cultural centre dedicated, as it name might suggest, to the promotion of North Atlantic arts. It's supported by Denmark, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands and plays home to the Icelandic Embassy.
At the moment the Centre is hosting an exhibition called, 'Traces' by Johan Martin Christiansen, an artist from the Faroe Islands. It features a number of pieces made from fabric, plaster and iron-work which are dotted around two of the three galleries housed in the building.
The first of these galleries, on the ground floor, is hung with large, irregularly sewn fabric pieces in muted greys and creams. They resemble huge sails and as the sun shines though the windows on each side of the room it reveals a series of imperfections in the fabric and the stitching.
On the floor above a stuffed polar bear stands guard over the second gallery. Whilst the bear on permanent display and is not part of the exhibition itself it does set the scene for the second set of works by Christiansen. The room is painted entirely in white and festooned with a number of plaster-covered iron-works resembling harpoons and primitive hunting tools.
For sure the exhibition won't be to everyone's tastes but the subtle use of texture in the first gallery and the haunting, poignant quality of the work on display in the second merits closer investigation.
Best regards,
electrofried(mr)
