Embla

The artwork Embla was created for TICKON, Tranekær International Centre for Art in Nature in 2009. The starting point for this art intervention were three monumental Elm trees found in the Slottsparken (the Castle Park) in Langeland These unfortunate, majestic trees had succumbed to Dutch elm disease. A disease caused by a member of the sac fungi that affects elm trees and spread by elm bark beetles.

My wish was to give these fantastic monumental trees a new life by incorporating the natural organic circular motions of the trees and inspiration from the tunnel like structures left in the surface of the elm trees by the bark beetles. Remnants from the organisms who had unfortunately caused the demise of these great trees.

In this artwork I utilised the whiteness of the dead elm’s tree trunks and branches as a canvas upon which I “drew” or more precisely used a form for pyrography to engrave/scorch virile structured forms. A technique that at the same time as marking also helps preserve the wood.   

It is the interplay between the artwork and the natural, elements: wood, carbon, clay, fire and water, that help to underline an interaction of sustainability that characteristically give this artwork it’s undoubted presence.

 NB.                                                                                                                                  The term art intervention applies to art designed specifically to interact with an existing structure or situation, be it another artwork, the audience, an institution or in the public domain, in this case three elm trees in a Castle estate.

 Langeland is a Danish Island located between the Great Belt and Bay of Kiel.

Location: TICKON Langeland, Denmark
Material: Scorched Elms