Over the years, I have continuously used boulders and glacial erratics as reference points of shape. I predominantly work with non-figurative art, but certain shapes still fascinate me.
The erratics carry a lasting fascination for me, tied to memory as well as form. They are also part of my earliest memory of what I considered art. My father is an artist too, and I have a very early memory from the mid-90s of a proposal for a public sculpture commissioned in Nuuk, Greenland. I saw the small models for it at home, and as a kid, this was my first sense of “this is art,” a deep fascination with a black, geometric sculpture that incorporated two large rocks balanced within its structure. Today, I’m drawn to that same idea, merging something organic with something structured.
Boulders and erratics are common across Greenland, where most of the country is covered by the ice cap and glacial formations have shaped the landscape, carrying large boulders across great distances. These boulders, transported over millions of years, end up in new locations where they stand out because of their shape. They make me think about migration and about settling in new places. About how one can become part of a landscape while still keeping one’s own character and identity. You can belong to something and still be different, and that difference is often what makes you interesting.
The boulders also give me a sense of solidity, a foundation, a reminder of coming from somewhere where life is slow and quiet, yet comforting and predictable.
See artworks in following series: