Ginnungagap

Installation as part of ART SOUTERRAIN 2014 art festival and MONTREAL NUIT BLANCHE

Year: 2014

Team: Anca Matyiku and Chad Connery

Ginnungagap invites the city dweller to pause and temporarily contemplate the inner life of an unassuming obelisk container. Porcelain and wood protrusions entice the passerby to discover a secret world through the folds of their openings. The domain within reveals a cascading population of fragile carapaces caught in a transformation beneath constant eroding drips. These crystalline shells grow stalactite limbs and slowly dissolve; their ghostly white bodies erupt into a flowering of turquoise bouquets.

Inspired by Norse folklore, Ginnungagap is a single instalment of an ongoing investigation into the presence and quality of salt in human myth, history, and architecture. A seemingly mundane material in daily life, the deeper nature of salt is revealed as a crucible for the intersection of economy, biology, and dreams.