Polarized Landscape

Gunnar Aagaard Andersen began experimenting with light in the early 1950s. These experiments later crystallised, giving rise to large light sculptures and light installations. Here, he worked with splitting daylight and electric light, taking it from its monochrome to its polarised form. To Aagaard Andersen, light was ”a figurative language of tone and colour.” A light installation Polarized Landscape from 1969 is a light installation consisting of a number of carefully arranged objects with transparent and electrically lit elements. The mirrors in the installation reflect the electric light, and prisms split it into colours, thereby imbuing the individual elements of the construction with life. The spectator’s perception of the work changes according to his or her position in relation to the work. Change your position, and you change the way you see the colours. Light and the natural laws According to Aagaard Andersen, the order associated with the laws of physics could be transferred to the arts. The artist had carefully studied light and the natural laws applying to it and was interested in manipulating light to create a new world. He did not wish to copy nature, but defined his works of art as parallel phenomena. Aagaard Andersen saw himself as a hybrid artist who sought to form a synthesis of the arts. He greatly influenced artists such as Viera Collaro (1946-) and Niels Nedergaard (1944-1987).