Toxic Heaven

Toxic Heaven is a site-specific sculpture for the group show Digging the Earth at Sunnybrook Art Center. In an abandoned landscape – once a clay pit, later GDR-era dumping ground – vegetation engulfs old rubbish, beautiful buzzing insects swirl around, and thorny weeds stick, prick, and sting the skin. A repulsive but deeply energetic environment. The plants tower slightly above eye level, forcing visitors to explore the landscape in uncertainty. Suddenly, a large, mysterious, faceless clay creature with outstretched tentacles rises from the contaminated soil. As the viewer approaches, bubbles sound from neon-green cauldrons embedded in the parched earth, and faint white smoke pours out of the creature and floats into the surrounding environment. It is as if there is something breathing here, a wonderful wild energy. These are the kinds of places we sought out when we were very young – where pollution kept gentrification at bay and creativity could breathe in the cracks. Building a sculpture here felt like participating in a quiet transformation and adding a new layer to a place already shaped by time, use and neglect.

Toxic Heaven, 2023
320cm x 300cm x 140cm, steel wire, clay, concrete, wood, water, gouache paint, vaporizer, air pump, PU tubes, cables

Sunnybrook Art Center, Göhrenz, Markranstädt (DE), installation view

Sunnybrook Art Center, Göhrenz, Markranstädt (DE), installation view

Mortenbjerre@protonmail.com

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Toxic Heaven