Light installation, 2020
Tilda Dalunde’s work is part of the three-year long artistic research project “Detox - Clean it up!”, where Rejmyre Art Lab invited a group of artists to work with a starting point in the contaminated land behind Rejmyre Glassworks. The light installation is placed inside the fenced off area, on the contaminated land and can be viewed through the fence after dusk. It consists of left over glass pieces form the glass production that glow in different rytms.
“Forbidden places appear in many fairy tales. It could be a cave full of gold, a palace where the tables are always laden with food, or a swamp that was once a battlefield and is now filled with the wandering souls of the fallen. The rule in such places is always the same: You must not touch or eat anything. If you break the rule, you may be turned to stone, forget who you are, or suffer an eternal curse.
When I was faced with the cordoned-off area behind the glassworks, I felt as if I had stepped into one of these tales. The trees looked so peaceful, the pieces of glass on the ground sparkled like lost treasure, and butterflies flew through the mesh of the metal fence that blocked the area - for them, it was not a boundary. Yet there was something there, something invisible that could harm me if I broke the fairy tale rule of touching nothing.
The strange thing, of course, is why such places always make one long for them. Is it as simple as wanting something you cannot have? Sometimes the world becomes uncomfortably tangible, usually when it poses a threat. Sometimes the world is so out of reach that we don’t even realize the threat comes from ourselves. Perhaps longing is more about avoiding understanding. A yearning for that kind of innocent magic found in fairy tales, where no explanations are needed and where the things that threaten us are not our own fault.”