Ine Harrang
The Forest
Artist Ine Harrang passed away on December 16, 2024, after illness. She was 64 years old. Until the very end, she worked on the project “The Forest,” which is now on display at the Møre og Romsdal Art Center. “The Forest” will present an installation piece, a birch bark spiral, and a video work.
In Ine Harrang’s local area in Molde lies Retiroparken / The Retiro Park. Once a stately private park modeled after European designs, it is now an overgrown wilderness where the grandeur and beauty of the past can still be glimpsed. The park’s main attraction was the Atlantic Ocean, a pond with classical sculptures placed on small islands. The outline of the pond and the islands is clearly visible in the landscape even though the water is now gone, and nature has reclaimed the area.
In the video work “The Forest,” where she does a performance, two of the islands in the Atlantic Ocean are recreated as her home. The dominant objects are a red wing chair, a large baroque mirror, three dress sculptures, and an old wall clock. Additionally, part of her collection consisting of old dolls, birds, stuffed animals, toys, etc., helps create the experience of a room. The artist moves from the baroque mirror to the wing chair and counts seconds. This is worked out mathematically. In this way, Ine Harrang gives us a slice of time representing a 12-hour cycle. The soundscape is simple. Her voice counts seconds. We hear the wall clock ticking, blackbird song, heartbeats, and breathing.
In the smallest gallery room the artwork “I believe in the sun even if it is not shining” is presented. This is a spiral of birch bark that one can walk into. In the larger gallery room, parts of the pond and the island in Retiro Park are recreated with trees, nature, and objects. The walls are covered with full-scale photos of the surroundings around the Atlantic. The aim is to convey the experience of a closed, secret garden.
The project operates on several levels. It has a historical and demographic aspect and is a reflection on forgetfulness. It contains the awareness of the different layers that time creates in our surroundings. The artist seeks to make visible an understanding between context and substance. She aims to find a balance between a narrative landscape and a poetics.
Photo and editing: Omar Sejnæs
Glass for me started with stained glass, the art form that brought shards of broken light into medieval cathedrals. Since then, glass has become a partial medium for concept-based work in the material’s fringe, where I am not as concerned with what glass art is, as what it can also be. For the past two years, I have worked with performance/video – a steep and interesting learning curve. The work is mainly project-based and has largely been related to the displacement of time, memory signs, and remnants. This has been consolidated through larger projects that in various ways have contained, debated, or problematized traces, collections, and memory imprints. As my practice over time becomes clearer, red threads can also be seen in a retrospective perspective. A present undertone is the desire to understand a perceived Metaplan in existence.
I have a bachelor’s degree from Edinburgh College of Art, glass department, and a master’s degree from the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague, with a specialization in concept-based work and glass. I have had numerous solo exhibitions at, among others, Østfold Art Center, Kabuso, Bærum Art Hall, Nidaros Cathedral, and Møre og Romsdal Art Center. Furthermore, I have held various positions, including chairman of the board at Møre og Romsdal Art Center (2011-2019), board member at the Museums in Sunnmøre and NKM, chairman of BKMR, and advisor for the World Heritage Center in Geiranger. Over time, I have also gained extensive experience as an artistic consultant. I have received several grants and was awarded the State’s 10-year work grant in 2017.
Thank you to MRK, Rune Myklebust, Janny Meese, Lilja Runi Harrang, Synnøve Hungnes, Jet Pascua, and Omar Sejnæs.
- Ine Harrang
The exhibition is suppported by MRFK, BKH and KIN