Artists

Christina Augustesen, David Svensson, Thordis Erla Zoëga

Press release

SPECTA opens 2025 with the exhibition There Is a Light, featuring works by three artists; Christina Augustesen, David Svensson and Thordis Erla Zoëga, who all use light - both daylight and artificial light - in their works, but with very different means and focus.

With the general light in the space, Christina Augustesen's (DK/1975) wall-hung objects open a multitude of color nuances. When the viewer moves from one position to another, it is as if the colors change before one's eyes in soft transitions, driven by the light in the room. Another work, Colour Spaces: Colour Fields I holding its own artificial light, is programmed to slowly change color and intensity in light, and in this way gives room for contemplation and calm. Augustesen explores the fundamental properties of light and color, and adds a sensuous and moving dimension to the teaching of light, darkness and the gap in between, where the colors unfold.

Light is a focus in David Svensson's (SE/1973) practice; daylight, which changes the color of white book pages, light drawing figures in the pile of textile carpets and light illuminating places in countless public works. Svensson's new work Glasriket/The Kingdom of Crystal consists of several older utility and decorative objects, ready-mades, made of glass. The individual objects are stacked at varying heights, lit from below and the display is like an abstract city, an unknown, "other" place rising alluringly in front of us.

Thordis Erla Zoëga (IS/1988) occupies a gallery space with her installation Hverdag/Everyday. Behind blinds, more or less open, light escapes in varying shades of color, reminding us of a daily routine; The idea of ​​the work stems from the daily routine of opening and closing the blinds that the Earth's rotation makes us follow. A simple act that greets a new day, which on an overall level is driven by the relationship between the Earth and the Sun - both the near and the universal, is something we all have in common. Common to the works in the exhibition is the use of light as a driving force for impressions that are, above all, sensuous and open. An atmosphere we can sink into, lose ourselves in and remember that even in the dark month of January, and in a dark time, there is a light...