Falling Water - An installation about the present and decay

At the same time it is a venture into the cycle of creation and decay. It is also the work of glass artist Stine Diness and visual artist Martin Thaulow and the latest and so far most ambitious result of the two Danes’ experiments with the interaction between different media.

Stine Diness. Year of origin: 2009.
Glass object by Stine Diness.
Material/technique: Sollid glass, mixed media.
Measures: H: max. 90cm, W: 37cm, L:100cm
Photo by Cornelia Gramkow

“Falling Water” is a “cloud” combining a number of different items including a thousand glass drops, video productions, audio images etc. Everything is carefully combined. The installation has been exhibited in Chicago and Ohio, U.S.A, Wakefield, U.K. and Copenhagen, Denmark.

Stine Diness & Martin Thaulow. Year of origin: 2009.
Video/sound by Martin Thaulow.
Glass object by Stine Diness.
Material/technique: Sollid glass, mixed media.
Measures: H: max. 90cm, W: 37cm, L:100cm
Photo by Cornelia Gramkow

In the first exhibition room a thousand frozen moments caught in a similar number of glass drops draws the spectator into the many momentary states of mind of Stine Diness’ glass object. The glass objects frozen moments instantly plays together with the circular images of a video projected at the floor below the sculpture, depicting the cycle of life by falling water drops. Drops that are absorbed and returned to nature’s cycle, clouds in motion, green plants and landscapes.

Using glass as a material of art, Stine Diness gives glass another existence than being just raw material for craftsmanship. Controlled by the artist’s skill and state of mind every glass drop is a unique illustration of a solitary moment. Martin Thaulow’s circular video projected below the glass object takes the spectator on a quiet and intimate journey carried by sound and moving images. Based on the raindrop’s perfect globular shape the video relates a cycle of creation, life and death. The glass object and the video jointly create a feeling of presence and an experience of time and emotion.

Stine Diness & Martin Thaulow.
Year of origin: 2010.
The Box - Installation view.
Material/technique: Wood, redymades and mixed media.
Measures: H: 110 cm W: 110 cm L: 110 cm.
Photo by Cornelia Gramkow

The second room is like the nightly dark forest of fall, where the visitor walks through a thick layer of fallen leaves. Here vision has been eliminated – here the smell of decaying leaves, the reminiscences of childish play in the leaves and the sound of your softened steps are reigning. This mood is brought along to the third room where darkness is broken by the light emerging from a cubic box positioned among the leaves. It’s possible to look into the box and discover an apparent nostalgic interior – a cozy armchair among walls decorated with old-fashioned tapestries.

Falling Water:
Video Still, The Box
Year of origin: 2010
Video by Martin Thaulow
Sound by Andreas Nillsson
Violin: Mark Caspersen

On the chair, however, a TV-set is denying all comfort and nostalgia, displaying a Martin Thaulow video with a woman slowly sinking beneath the surface of water and drowning: a depiction of destruction and a challenge to the viewer – dare we face decay?

“Falling Water” is a dialogue between glass, images, smell and sound. It’s also a dialogue between the thousands of moments that create and constitute life itself and the decay that awaits everything living – whether drops, humans, societies or the world.

The project has been sponsored by: