PIXELATED SENSUOUSNESS
Living Design / Text by Trine Møller Madsen
For the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition 2007, the large glazed entrance section had been transformed into a vibrant forest of dots that changed as the beholder moved through the space. Designer Ane Lykke’s stunning installations intensify our senses and make us aware of body and space.
Dot after dot after dot … Right, left, up, down, moving in, moving out, moving through. The pixelated pattern formation at the boxy entrance section of Kunsthal Charlottenborg was one of the more striking projects in the 2007 Spring Exhibition. The title of the installation was Distorted, and indeed, this seems an apt term for the purpose of Ane Lykke’s general project: twisting our fixed perceptions of reality.
It may not be readily apparent, but Ane Lykke trained as a textile designer at Danmarks Designskole. Since her graduation in 1996 she has devoted intense efforts to exploring space and discovering ways of approaching the surfaces in a space to dissolve physical boundaries and challenge our common means of perception. She uses her textile training to view things from new and unconventional angles.
“Textiles are in fact based on a sort of layered structure. In my projects, I delve into this structure, taking the layers apart and drawing them out into three dimensions. This lets me apply the structure in a spatial and architectural manner. The textural expression occurs in the physical space in the eyes of the beholder, and is woven by less tangible materials such as time, light and movement.”
Ane Lykke’s interactive space rejects static boundaries, conventions and fixed perceptions. She creates moments of spatial distortion based on the notion that the cracks and gaps that occur when the intellect surrenders are the source of new experiences and insights. That was the idea behind Distorted as well as the installation Mind the Gap at the Danish Design Centre in 2006 – a sort of three-dimensional wallpaper that changed with the beholder’s movement in front of the wall.
“I am interested in the dimensions that lie beyond the traditional functional value, and the beholder’s active participation is an essential parameter for me. Less static surroundings require a greater degree of presence and involvement. Rather than dictating something or offering final answers, I wish to create an open space where the individual is free to act.”
These visually striking projects will continue to challenge conventions also outside the exhibition context. Ane Lykke is currently working on drafts for Tønder Art Museum, designing a way to filter the light. The near future also holds a collaborative project with the architectural firm DRZ. Here, one of the tasks that Ane Lykke is involved in is developing surfaces that regulate space acoustics. “This gives me an opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary context in a close dialogue with both architects and engineers. My work is going to be a fully integrated part of the construction process; this is where my strength lies and where I can really make a difference".
HONEY COMB HALLUCINATION
FRAME #51 / Text by Lilia Glanzmann
Apart from its striking beauty, an installation of layered acryl-resin cells offers a mesmerizing alternative to yoga
Once warned to “mind the gap” between platform and carriage in a London tube station, textile designer Ane Lykke had no idea that a few years later she would be using these three words as the title of a impressive floor-to ceiling installation. As “gap” is the keyword of this work, says Ane Lykke, the expression seemed unavoidable.
Layered patterns have played a significant part in the work of the Danish designer for as long as she can remember. What began as two-dimensional screen printing, however, gained an extra dimension in the project shown here. To create Mind the Gap, Lykke build an interconnected network of hexagonal boxes made from white acrylic resins to form the two parallel plans, and used stripes of red and white translucent film in an effort to create an optical illusion.
”Not inspired from the Danish national colours”, laugh Lykke. The Danish Design Centre had invited Lykke to fill an entire space with original work, an attractive opportunity that proved to be far more demanding and time consuming than it had first seems to be. “ I had to carry out lots of technical experiments with material, form and colour before coming up with the definitive installation. Even then it took a great deal of precise manual labour. To make the illusion work, every element had to be exact.
Exhibited at the Danish Design Centre earlier this year, the honeycombed wall were parallel . Together they formed a three dimensional structure that played with the visitors vision, generating patterns and textures that varied with the incidence of light, the distance between observer and installation, and the specific viewing angle. Because the interactive wall engaged visitors, it harboured a some what philosophical quality. Each person had his own unique experience. Some walked through the whole room to find as many patterns as possible, while others focused only on the colours or on the rhythm of the stripes.
Although Lykke has moved on, her work continues to feature “the gap”. One new project is a commission for the Stilleben, an interior-design shop in Copenhagen, and another is a temporary installation for Trapholt, an art museum in Kolding, Denmark. I used a similar optical effect in both these new projects, but it has been developed even further, says the designer. “At Stilleben, I´ll apply stripes directly to the wall, and the installation for the museum will be much larger, the space is bigger and so is the gap. It will have a much stronger impact on spectators”. Is the gap in danger of vanishing? No says Ane Lykke, who hopes to collaborate with architects in exploring even broader applications. “I would like to see the installation become an integral part of a building. If it can be integrated into a building from the very beginning, just think of all the exciting possibilities for optical illusions”.
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SPACES THAT SPEAK
KUNSTSTUFF / Talentstuff 2006 / Text by Charlotte Jul
Ane Lykke’s wall installation Mind the Gap – exhibited recently at the Danish Design Centre – demonstrates new paths for textile design with its acrylic inventiveness that involves the viewer.
It may sound over-subtle that a few hexagonal boxes in acrylic with stripes of varying widths create unique experiences for the people who look at them, but that is nevertheless the essence of Ane Lykke’s textile power point, which engages you actively in its installation, making you aware of your presence in the space. Placing two parallel-striped layers one over the other at a distance of 14 cm creates a kind of optical illusion where the stripes ‘move’ depending on where you position yourself and how close you are to the work. The movement takes the form of a displacement towards the viewer, who involuntarily asks the Cartesian question ‘Am I dreaming or am I awake?’. Presumably Ane Lykke is in fact on an existential mission when she enters into a dialogue with the public and forces them to feel a sense of space quite physically? ‘I want to intervene consciously in a space and upset the expectations people have of it; to present something unpredictable – a surprise that creates synergy between my textile universe, the architectural space and the recipient’s cultural assumptions.’
It is the reciprocity of this semiotic triangle that fascinates Ane Lykke, who has worked since she graduated from Danmarks Designskole to create new and different dimensions and experiences in space. Last year she was in the running for a Biennale prize with her white paper carpet whose volume and idea recall a snow-clad hilly land- scape in a child’s fairyland. What a feast! Ane Lykke’s approach to her craft is broader than most people’s. With her background in textiles she imagines the tactile context in new settings – often in an interplay with other concepts like spatiality in unor- thodox ‘textiles’ like acrylic and paper. ‘I challenge the potential of the materials – what they are capable of, the tech- niques and what they do. I’m inspired by other approaches to the field because that’s where the interesting things arise.’