The architects group “Observatorium” from Rotterdam has created “Hallenhaus – open university” in the Ruhr area (Germany). The area is filled with man made hills consisting of the left over material from coal mines. One of those is Halde Norddeuchtland where the Hallenhaus is situated.

In 2009 I was invited to take temporary residence for 6 months with a work in Hallenhaus.

The Ruhr is one of the industrial hearts of Europe with many abandoned coalmines and therefore I choose to create a work with a more modern energy resource which is used today – the wind. Under the open “roof” of the Hallenhaus I hung a wind organ with 27 pipes that would whistle and tell the stories of the wind. The pipes had a striking resemblance to the many chimneys from the factories on the horizon.

Architectural Recalibration

This work has its origin in the experience of soap bubbles.

It is a strong metaphor, which would loose its magic if we could catch the bubbles and keep it.

Glass is a material often associated with fragility and therefore I find it quite strange and wonderful that it is the most used surface material in modern monumental architecture. In the beginning of the oeuvre of the big buildings of glass people where afraid of stepping to close to the edge of floors because of their experience of glass as a fragile material.

At some point bubbles started bursting all around me. The financial crisis entered minds worldwide. I let the feeling of loosing trust in established structures enter the process of this work.

“Architectural Recalibration” is about collapsing, breaking and loosing in equal coexistence with reconstructing, triumph of achievement and the need to play.

Function

Models of buildings are pulled up mechanically from a tray containing soap solution.

Size

Approximately 10 m2 of horizontal surface. The installation takes up the full height of a space.

Materials

Wood, rubber, steel, string, soap and motors directed by an Arduino-board

Photographer

Charlott Markus

Technical developer

Heerko van de Kooij

Lilith Confined

Video installation based on the legend of “Lilith” – the mytholigical first wife of Adam. In this work she is trapped in a box. Exposed as she is, she tries to make contact with the surroundings, which she can’t see.

Materials: Wood, plexi-glass, a beamer, sound installation

Size: 1.20 x 0.70 x 0.55 m

Actress: Milena Haverkamp

Hiding Baba Yaga

In exploring the ingredients of stop motion animation, I found the chance to make use of the anticipations connected to this particular medium. In the process of making stop motion animation, the maker has a master role as puppeteer. Miniature objects are brought to life step by step by the giant hands of the maker. In the finished product all traces of the maker are erased.

In “Hiding Baba Yaga” the roles of the maker and the animated object overlap.

Duration: 05:43 min

Skin

A self-potrait

Our bodies change every day. The amount of spots wrinkles and scars visible on the surface of the skin changes through time. Before getting an operation for varicose veins on my legs I wanted to remember exactly what I looked like according to the natural progress of my body.

Thoroughly I mapped my skin and the shapes of my limbs onto layers of fabric.

Altar

Before the dominance of concrete as preferred material for buildings, houses in the western world where built of stones, bricks or wood. Nowadays buildings have an inner core consisting of standard elements that are cast at a factory. The wall elements, the ones with openings for a window, the stairs and the floors are brought to the construction sight as huge building blocks to be stacked on top of each other in the right order. When the core is finished the house gets a layer of “skin” on the outside to hide the concrete.

This work is a sculptural translation of the traditional values our society is built upon. In order to support oneself it is necessary to earn money to buy bread and have a roof over ones head.

In the confusion of the traditional style of constructing and the modern style, “Altar” is a construction of wooden board covered with fake bricks. As a relic in the niche of the work you see bread baked in the shape of a house. Of the bread new slices of “house” are produced just as the prefabricated concrete blocks from the factory.

Size: 2m (front) 0.45m and 1.50m (sides) 2.40 (height)

Materials: Bread, wood and brick strips

]]> http://marthabenedikte.dk/altar/feed/ 0 http://marthabenedikte.dk/coming-soon/ http://marthabenedikte.dk/coming-soon/#comments Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:54:18 +0000 Sjoerd http://marthabenedikte.dk/?p=93 I exist under the company-name “Martha Hjorth Jessen Meubels & Kunst”

Besides making art I also make furniture. This part of the site will be updated shortly…

Somewhere in the process I got lost in the material and ended up with 1100 meters of string without endings and a handful of works more or less autonomous.

String sketch #1: Wheel device for tracking.

String sketch #2: Boat

size: 3 x 1,60 m

String Sketch #3: Small sculptures, a house and a boat

String work #4: A delayed Presence – Videowork of 5:22 min