Friday, September 20, 2013

Mandrake/ Alrune


Mandragora officinarum

Mandragora officinarum
From three species wildgrowing around the Mediterranean, especially in Italy, Greece and in Asia Minor, is Mandragora officinarum the mostly spread. A long root, often thick and deeply cleft, until 60 cm, branches off a close rosette of ovale or lanceolate leaves, the long-stemmed flowers are yellow-green, the berries round and yellowish. The whole plant is very poisonous.

 fruits

The root might resemble parsnips. The leaves are dark-green elliptic and oblong and might remind about the leaves of a big Rumex crispus. When the mandragora is some years old the fruits can look like small tomatoes. 

Mandrake belongs to the nightshade family. Mandrake contains deliriant hallucinogenic tropane alkaloids, and the roots sometimes contain bifurcation, causing them to resemble human figures, their roots have long been used in magic rituals, today also in pagan traditions such as Wiccan and Odinism . 
roots


Danish names:

Alrunerod, Satans æble and Dragedukke ( Alrune's root, the Devil's apple and Dragondoll).
The Danish word Alrune comes in 1534 from German Alraun and from the Gothic word: "runa",  meaning secret, which is also the name of a mysterious creature, a prophetess, in the Roman poetry callled a witsh or a fortune-teller and often called Alrune(Alraun). In ancient times was differentiated between a male and female Alrune. People believed that the root had mysterious and secret qualities.

In a translation from Book of Genesis it was called a dockyrt ( doll-herb) (1535). In 1663 it was mentioned by the very used name dragedukke (dragon-doll),  referring to the humanlike root . The name Mandragora came possibly from Greek mandra (= cattle stable) and agora (a meeting place), because the plant often grows in cattle pens, but there are more interpretations of the mandragora-name. In the 1700s the plant was mentioned by the name Galgemand (Gallows man) - and in 1883 armesynderblomst (the root had to be digged up on gallows hill under the body of an arm synder (a poor sinner). In 1906 the alrune was also known as tryllerod ( magic root) or mestermandsrod ( mestermand = executioner).


I'll call the plant Alrune in the following section,  since the informations are from folklore collectors who were travelling the country in order to get hold of informations from local people. 
People knew the plant by the name Alrune. 


Talisman and Superstition



The alrune does not grow wild and it was possibly never cultivated in Denmark. The humanlike root was brought from the south, probably by craftsmen and gypsies. The root was rare, some of the owners were known by name, a metalcaster at a Danish ironwork owned an alrune in 1666. In 1681 an example of an alrune-root was seen by a Frenchman in "Kongens Kunstkammer" (The King's art collection) . 

People thought the herb grew out from a hanged (and innocent)  thief's blood or semen under the gallows hill, it had to be taken up at midnight in a full moon, a  black dog had to draw it up from the earth and would die doing this, you had to put cotton or wax in your ears, for if you heard the terrible scream of the plant, you would drop dead, but by blowing a trumpet at the same time as the scream was heard, it was possible to outshout the scream. Since people believed that the plant grew at the gallows hill, it might be because the executioners cultivated the plant in order to make an anesthetic or sedative for the victims before the execution.



Strange deeds were done with the root. Some meant that this strange humanlike creature had grown from its owners' blood. Together with and mixed with other superstition the alrune was considered a mysterious creature - a living dragondoll, a pixie, a troll, a witch, a bjergmand, (mountain troll), a dragon spirits, and very important also as a coin, which would draw everything to its owner and provide for his wealth. The dragondoll had to be told on New Year's morning what it had to provide for the house in the next year.

dragondoll

If something suddenly had disappeared it was said in Jutland that the dragondoll had taken it - and they spit warding off in their purse. The alrune was compared to the kid of a rat, a grey fish, a toad, a little white worm with a red head or a beetle. If people in an unexplained way came to riches, it was said about them that "he has got a dragondoll". (1880) A fisherman who caught more salmons than the others, was also accused for being the owner of a dragondoll. By the help of the dragondoll you could draw all luck from your neighblours and become rich yourself.

Some people, who owned a dragondoll, never lacked money. This was certainly true about the bailiff in Ry Mølle, and the landlord of the manor Strårup at Kolding owned also such a little creature, his dragondoll looked like a little living human in the chest of drawers, it could sit up and look at people. A rich farmer had the dragondoll in a box in his corner cabinet, and he always kept the key in his money purse. The old and very rich Rasmus Kræmmer from Viemose i Sjælland owned a very small dragondoll - every time he opened its box in a hanging cupboard, it was sitting there with a skilling in its mouth.



foto: gb
If you at midnight went around a churchyard three times in the name of the devil, you would meet someone who asked you if you wanted a valuable coin or a dragondoll,  the coin was sure to get, but the doll gave most money. A woman at Funen passed a market place and saw a sweet little doll in a box, and when she lifted the doll, a new moneynote lay under it, she got frightened and went home, but when she entered the house the box with the doll was at the table.

If people suspected a woman to be a witch, she was put upon a chair with an alrune-root under the seat, and the witch would be squirming and wiggling.

If a guy had a dragondoll under his shirt, he would win the heart of every girl. (1760) A girl who dressed in a frivolous manner, was called a dragondoll. But it was also said that the alrunes which grew around the big longdolmen "Alrunes' grave" at the Danish island Alrø, was magic medicine against Cupid's arrow shots.

Fanefjord kirke, foto: grethe bachmann
It was said that many women owned such a little doll in a box, and this was of course the devil himself, for if someone kept him for nine years, they had to belong to him after death. For the same reason the devil moved from one woman to another.

1890: It was not easy to get rid of a dragondoll. Everyone was scared of being the tenth owner. The owner of a dragondoll was in collusion with the devil and could not get rid of it without selling it;  if he gave it away or threw it away it came back at once. A man threw it in a lake, Lyng Sø in Jutland, but in vain. It came back to him.


With a piece of root in the pocket the purse would never be empty and one could win games and be free from disease. The plant's contents of poisonous alkaloids  were used in "the flying-ointments" of the witches.



Medicine
Alrune was believed to be a plant which could cure every disease in the world. But if the root was used in a wrong way, it might provoke insanity. The plant was used as an aphrodisiac and in order to promote fertility. It was also used as an anesthetic.
The alrune was introduced in the pharmacies in 1672.
Wine decoct eased pains after operation and gave sleep afterwards. In 1520, the plant was part of a painkilling ointment. 1577: "If the root is cooked in wine it soon becomes intoxicating". Alrune was used against headache in East Jutland.
It was also used in livestock diseases. 







Literature.
The mandragora play a main role in the world's literature. It was known from the Bible and the Oddyssey, and many writers have mentioned and used this famous herb in their books.  Machiavelli wrote in 1518 a play called Mandragola and Shakespeare refers to mandrake four times under the name of mandragore, like in Anthony and Cleopatra, where Cleopatra says: "Give me to drink mandragora that I might sleep out this great gap of time. My Anthony is away". In Romeo and Juliet is said "Shrieks like mandrakes torn out of earth".
In Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling mandrakes can be found in the Hogwarts greenhouses. When pulled out of the earth, they resemble humans, and just as in the mythology, the cry is fatal. The mandrake can also revive those who have been petrified. Also John Steinbeck and Terry Pratchett have the mandrake root in their works.


Popular Culture
The four episode Doctor Who serial "The Masque of the Mandragora" by Louis Marks, broadcast in September 1976, features a living energy creature called the Mandragora Helix, a fragment of which hitches a lift to earth in the TARDIS and possesses and absorbs an Italian court astrologer towards the eventual aim of galactic domination.
Mandragoras appear as monsters in many video games, particularly in RPGs such as the Final Fantasy series.
In the film "Shakespeare in Love", Will Shakespeare, frustrated by writer's block, orders a mandragora in the pub.

Danish rock band
Alrune Rod (formed 1968) was a Danish psychedelic rock band.  




Source: V. J. Brøndegaard, folk og flora, Dansk Etnobotanik, bd. 4,1979. Wikipedia: Alrune and Mandragora 


photo: wikipedia and wikimedia.









Wednesday, September 18, 2013

The Famous Cat Maru has got a Cat

















 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGE41yneQw0








Have fun!



Elderberry Juice, Black Tea and Jasmin Oil.




Elderberry
Autumn is on its way, you cannot avoid it. The nights grow colder and the sun is losing some power. Stop your colds and your sneezing. Have some elderberry juice ready. If you'd like to be ahead, before it hits you then pluck a basket, full of the healthy black elderberries and make some juice. Take care it might give extra colour to your kitchen table.
If you cannot find elderberries in your  nearby forest, there is enough elderberry - like bottles with juice and soup in the frost disc - to get in the shops.

Scientific research has shown that elderberry juice can reduce fever, tiredness, headache and relieve sore throats. The elderberry juice is a vitaminbomb with a high content of C-vitamins and flavonoids. which promote the absorption of the vitamins. 





Black Tea
The green tea is the most emphasized tea, when it's about your health, but the black tea has also entered the field. The black tea contains some flavonoids, which Australian scientists have examined for their regulating effect on the blood pressure. The scientists selected a group of 112 women and men, who all had a high blood pressure. Half of the group had to drink three cups black tea daily, the other half had to drink three cups of a drink without flavonoids.

It showed already from the first day that the group, which drank black tea, had reduced their blood pressure. The experiment ran for six months, and the effect stayed all the way. The group, who did not get the black tea, had  unchanged blood pressure.

Source: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.



Jasmin Oil
If you suffer from anxiety, or if you have a constant feeling of uneasiness then try to get some etheric Jasmin oil. Just if to stick your nose down in a blooming jasmin makes you feel you'll have to take a deep breath and let the good feeling spread in your body.
The concentrated etheric oil from jasmin shows that it is able to compete with the most common anxiety medicines like barbiturates, benzodiazepines and propofol.

German scientists conclude in Journal of Biological Chemistry that there is scientific evidence to use the etheric oil of jasmin against anxiety, uneasiness and insomnia. A fragrance lamp and a bottle of the etheric jasmin oil can help you. Let the fragrance spread in your room and feel the tranquility!


Source: Magazine Søndag, Nyt om din sundhed, Søndags Sundhedspanel. 2013.
photo 2005/2012 : grethe bachmann nielsen

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Høvblege - an important Hillside for Plants and Butterflies





Høvblege is a hilly and very beautiful landscape at Møn, one of the Danish southsea islands. We went there on a day in July, it was a little misty, the sea and sky was almost one in the horizon and the sun stood behind the clouds but it still had the power of summer, it was a lovely day in mid-summer, and the air was warm and filled with a fine scent of all the various herbs.

Several plants here on the southsea islands are actually more spread south of the Baltic, but the climate is milder here on Møn than in the rest of Denmark and the soil conditions are better, the herbs have better living conditions than in the rest of the country. The soil of the hills is calcareous with spread juniper bushes and a rich flora. The place is from early spring till late autumn a myriad of blooming flowers, emitting a wonderful fragrance which  make you feel like you were in the south of France. And the insect and bird life is just as manifold.  

Dactylorhiza matulata ssp fuchsii, Common spotted orchid



































Orchids
Many orchid-species and several other rare and red-listed plants create here the livelihood for insects and birds, and it is - together with Jydelejet nearby - the nature area in Denmark , which has the largest number of red- and yellowlisted species and thus the greatest biodiversity. The background of this diversity is the mixture of the calcareous soil and the influence of the cattle-grazing. It is also very important to stop the pollution with nutrients.




The orchids at Høvblege are together with the other biodiversity of plants and animals one of the most important reasons that the area is being cared for by the help of Galloway cattle. The orchids have special requirements of their habitats, and they are very sensitive to changes in their environment. They are all totally listed - both here like everywhere. Several of these orchids are on the red-list of species, which are especially endangered and which are only found in few places.


Onobrychis



















The insectfauna
 is characteristic for warm and flowerrich isotops with large variations of the flora. These isotops are the habitats of several species which have either their only or their most important habitat in Denmark. The butterfly fauna is not very rich in diversity, but it is subject to several rare species; the same goes for the beetle fauna, which like the butterflies require light-open vegetation and a sunny warm surface with many herbs.






Fine-leaf Vetch, Vicia tenuifolia

























                                                         
             
Ononis, Rest-harrow
Nature is changing
It was such a lovely day on this hillside, a unique nature place upon the isle of Møn. There was a fragrance of flowers and a buzzing of bumblebees. There are not many places left like this.  Nature is changing, it has always been changing, but our role in this is more visible and crucial today than ever. I watched this little delicate and rare blue butterfly, both butterflies and bees and other insects have trouble just to survive in Denmark. Most of the country is cultivated - in many places cultivated right out in each corner of the landscape. I like the butterflies and I have tried to follow them, but I have noticed year by year that the wellknown species are not as many as they used to be. Well, some say this is a  butterfly year or this is not a butterfly year. But the fact is that the butterflies have trouble today finding their wellknown habitats. There is a larger distance between the necessary places than before. One of the reasons is the lacking fallow fields. A few years ago those fields were wiped out by a new law. The farmers were allowed to use the fallow fields, and the habitats of butterflies and bees and other insects simply disappeared. Some butterflies have now been extinct, some are on their way to disappear in the Danish nature. New butterflies have appeared in the country though, but this is not an excuse. I cannot help wondering how much nature will disappear in the Danish landscape in the future. Will our children one day have to learn about nature from film and pictures? Will they never experience a lovely day on a hillside with fragrant flowers and buzzing bumble bees ?        




Large Blue
Large Blue Butterfly
Maculinea arion (Danish: Sortplettet Blåfugl) This pretty blue butterfly has its only Danish habitat here at Høvblege. It does not tolerate soil fertilization. Since 1950 the Large Blue has been almost extinct - and since 1990 it was only found at Høvblege and a couple of places in North Jutland. It is red-listed and protected..
The Large Blue is protected acc. to  EF-habitatdirective and the Bern- konvention, and it must not be caught, killed or disturbed, and its habitats must not be damaged or destroyed. Its most important habitat is Høvblege at Møn, where the butterfly's habitat is secured by nature preservation, and the population has continued to perform.


Transparent Burnet

Transparent Burnet
Zygaena purpuralis( Danish: Timian Køllesværmer) is a moth, which  is fond of a warm and sunny habitat. Today the species is only known with certainty  from Høvblege. It thrives well at Høvblege, not least thanks to the nature preservation of the hills. But the size of the population varies each year. The decline of the Transparent Burnet in Denmark is mainly caused by cultivation and planting in the former localitites, later the species disappeared from its habitats at Zealand (Sjælland) caused by overgrowing with grasses and perrenials, and later bushes because ot the lack of grazing.

Peach-leaved Bellflower
Peach-leaved Bell-Flower
Campanula persicifolia ( Danish: Smalbladet Klokke) Beside the fine orchids  there are many pretty herbs at Høvblege, like the blue bell-flower, which had many nicknames in the old days: The Princess' Thimble, or Church Bell, or even The Devil's Thimble. The bell-flower was probably introduced by monks in the late Middle Ages, it was not popular in the gardens, where it was considered a troublesome weed and called the Gardens Plague or the Gardener's Fear. Like other herbs it was used as a medicine, also for the cattle. The juice of the leaves gave a blue colour, which was used for paintings and for writing documents. Mixed with alun the juice dyed green. The plant was actually cultivated, since the root was edible, and the leaves were used as a salad.
The children played with the flowers; they put them on their fingers as a thimble, a flower was pressed with two fingers at the top and beaten against the other hand and a little bang sounded. The children put bees into the big bell-flowers and kept them there. Poor bees! If a person was able to turn around a bell flower without breaking it, a wish would be fullfilled

 Salad Burnet 

Salad Burnet, foto stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk
Sanguisorba minor (Danish: Blodstillende Bibernelle) is  native to Europe, northern Africa and western Asia, it was naturalized in most of North America. It is rare in Denmark, where it grows on calcareous banks and edge of roads. When cultivated it is used as an ingredient in both salads and dressings, it has a flavor like a light cucumber and is considered interchangeable with mint leaves in some recipes. The youngest leaves are used, as they tend to become bitter as they age. Salad Burnet has the same medicinal qualities as medicinal burnet Sanguisorba officinalis. It was used as a tea to relieve diarrhea in the past. As for history it was called a favorite herb by Francis Bacon and was brought to the New World with the first English colonists, even getting special mention by Thomas Jefferson.






Austrian Flax
Linum austriacum, Austrian Flax
Linum austriacum (Danish: Østrigsk Hør) The azureblue flowers of the Austrian flax looks lovely among the pretty pink orchids upon the hills. The Austrian flax was introduced to Denmark from south of the Baltic. The Austrian flax is protected.  The Common Flax with the pale blue flowers grows wild here at Høvblege too. Flax is a wellknown culture plant, it is cultivated as a food and fiber crop, the fibres are 2 or 3 times stronger than those of cotton. It is also grown for the edible linseed oil, which also is used as a drying oil in paint and varnish and used for linoleum and painting inks. Flax was already cultivated in ancient China and ancient Egypt.
In early tellings of the Sleeping Beauty tale, such as Sun, Moon and Talia by G. Basile, the princess pricks her finger not on a spindle but on a sliver of flax, which is later sucked out by her children, conceived as she sleeps.


Bladder Campion


















Bladder Campion
Silene vulgaris (Danish: Blæresmælde) don't actually look edible -  but it reallys is, although it is not known for this in Denmark. The plant is used as a food in Spain and in Italy, where it is known as sculpit or stridolo. Although the plant contains Saponin, which may be dangerous if it goes directly into the blood, the young leaves and shots may be used as food, the tender leaves may be eaten raw in salads, but the older leaves are usually eaten boiled or fried, sauteed with garlic as well as in omelettes and risotto in Italy. In Cyprus it is eaten very widely, so much so it has now for some years come back into being cultivated and sold in shops in bunches. Although the flowers are open in the day, a scent streams out from them in the evening to lure the insects, which are active at night.

Folk Medicine
In the old days people threw bladder campion plants out into the water, if they wanted to get rid of the fish.
In folk medicine it was used in baths in order to soften dry skin. The juice from the plant was used for treating inflamed eyes.

Folklore
In Gotland (Sweden) the plant is called Tarald (meaning provoking tears). People meant that they could drive away trolls and other underground people with the plant. If a troll touched a bladder campion, he would be caught by a sorrow so deep that he began to cry. Therefore the Tarald was considered one of the strongest ways to drive away the dangerous creatures. Similar to this is the English Maiden's Tears, and there might be a cultural connection here.


Prunella
Prunella /Self-heal

Prunella vulgaris, ( Danish: Brunella), known as Common Self-heal or Heal-all grows in all the northern hemisphere and is introduced to Australia and China. It grows north to Troms in Norway and rather high upon the mountains. The plant was always used in medicine. The English herbalist Nicholas Culpepper describes in his work The English Physician (1652) the English name Selfheal. " that if someone gets hurt he can heal himself with this herb". John  Gerard, another English herbalist and physician, wrote in the 1500s that " there is no better healing herb in the world". So medicinally, the whole plant is poulticed onto wounds to promote healing. Like Rosmarin (Rosmarin officinalis) and Salvie (Salvia officinalis) it is a strong antioxidant, which protects the tissue against chronic diseases. A mouthwash made from an infusion of the whole plant can be used to treat sore throats, thrush and gum infections. Internally, a tea can be used to treat diarrhea and internal bleeding. The plant has active ingredients like camphor and etheric oils; it easens and relieves cramps, inflammation, scratch, swollings and fever and heals wounds to some extent. The earlier name Brunelle vulgaris comes from the German Bruen, which means sore throat.

In traditional Chinese medicine, where the plant is considered to have anti-inflammatoric and cooling properties Prunella is a main ingredient in one of China's most popular drinks: Wanglaoji.




Field Cow-wheat
Field Cow-wheat
Melampyrum arvense (Danish: Ager Kohvede). This European plant flowers from June to September and is favoured by a dry habitat and chalky soil.  It is distributed throughout most of Western Europe.  In Great Britain it only occurs in a few locations in south-east England. It is becoming rarer, this may be due to a reduced area of arable land and changes in farming practices, such as seed-cleaning and intensification. The Field Cow-wheat is rare in Denmark and is only found on the Isles on coastal banks and pastures with calcareous soil.

This species is hemiparasitic, commonly on the roots of grasses but also on those of other plants. It cannot flourish without a host from which to take nutrients. The flowers are pollinated by bumblebees. The seeds may be dispersed by ants which are attracted by a small oil body attached to each seed and which carry them to their nests for food. Field Cow-wheat is an annual weed of arable fields. The seeds are poisonous because they hold aucubin.

Origanum 
Origanum vulgare
Origanum vulgare (Danish: Almindelig Merian) is a herb with a bushy growth.The whole plant has glands with etheric fragrant oils, and the nectare of the flowers is eagerly sought by bees, bumblebees and butterflies. The dried leaves are being used as a spice herb, but also as a tea. Origanum is widespread in the world, in Denmark it is common on the Isles, but rare in Jutland. It is a typical prairie plant, which grows in light-open spaces with a well-drained and calcareous soil. A special quality of the Origanum is -  like in Sweet Gale and Peppermint -  that is sends out a strong fragrance, even when it is not flowering. It can be used in dying wool and gives a brownred colour. Origanum was also used in Black Magic, like in witch spells and exorcism. In a Swedish herbal book from 1642 it is said: "the juice from this herb mixed with women's milk and put into the ears drives away pain in the ears." 

Lucerne
Alfalfa, Medicago sativa, (Danish Lucerne) is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. The English name alfalfa is widely used, particularly in North America. But in the UK Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, the more commonly used name is lucerne. It superficially resembles clover, with clusters of small purple flowers. It has been cultivated as livestock fodder since at least the era of the ancient Greeks and Romans.
This plant exhibits autotoxicity, which means it is difficult for lucerne seed to grow in existing stands of lucerne. Therefore, lucerne fields are recommended to be rotated with other species before reseeding.
Lucerne has been used as an herbal medicine for over 1500 years. In early Chinese medicines physicians used lucerne leaves to treat disorders related to the digestive tract and the kidneys. Lucerne was also believed to be beneficial to people suffering from arthritis and water retention. .







 
 



Source. Den danske flora, folk og flora, wikipedia,
text and photo Høvblege July 2013: grethe bachmannand stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk











Sunday, September 08, 2013

Ebeltoft Glasmuseum - OCEAN exhibition, 2013


















Outside the museum stands this funny jellyfish, but I don't know which artist created this. Most of them have made some fine glass sculptures of animals and things connected to the ocean. But it might be a work by Janine C Schimkat. (see her works later) 


entrance



















The frigate Jylland (which holds a museum) lies close to Ebeltoft Glasmuseum.






 Mark Elliott and Jack McGrath

 The first sculpture is by Mark Elliot from New Zealand and the Australian film maker Jack McGrath, who have developed a method called "Flame action" or "Glass-mation" . 




See link  Ocean Exhibition


 Maria Garcia Rosin



















 Maria Garcia Rosin (Whirling Hole on the floor)

 Maria Garcia Rosin



 























Three photos of the installation of Maria Garcia Rosin from Italy. She combines traditional Italian artwork with a contemporary artwork and creates objects which remind of both Venetian chandeliers and jellyfish with light. Her work was shown in another version at Venice Biennale 2009.







Raven Skyriver from USA is inspired by the colourful animal life in the sea - and at the same time referring discreetly to the fragile ecological balance.






Christina Bothwell from USA works with cast glass which she combines with raku-clay and oil- paint. Her figures are both melancholic, fragile and secret, hiding inner rooms and carrying new life. 





Hiroshi Yamano from Japan combines glass with silver leaf and copper. The fish symbolizes his life's philosophy: to swim against the stream to keep alive.
  NB : I forgot to say that Hiroshi's bowl is shaped like an apple, an extra refined touch, since the OCEAN exhibition is in Ebeltoft ( =Appletoft)







Palo Macho from Slovachia uses the glass as a kind of  canvas for his simple compositions in grey-blue. His work Horizon is a beautiful contrast between the horizont of the water and the circular frame of the glass.






 Katherine Gray from USA works with both  minimalistic sculptures and works focusing on the debate about art, crafts and the industrial made works.




Janine C. Schimkat from the Netherlands is fascinated by the weightless world beneath the surface of the sea. She uses both pate de verre, blown glass, slumping and fusing, glass pearls, glass paints, found glass objects, silicone and air pumps in her underwater tableaus,  telling short, subtle stories about the life in the bottom of the sea.  





A view down to the museum's workshop.





Below: Some pictures from the permanent exhibition at Ebeltoft glasmuseum 












Below: Trondur Patursson's glass installation at Ebeltoft Glasmuseum 




If you look closely you can see the square floor in the bottom of the photo. I could not walk in upon that floor. I have tried once and I would not do it again. I get terribly dizzy!!.


  The Faroe glass artist Trondur Patursson made a great mirror- and glass-installation "Kosmisk Rum" which was made in connection to Kulturby 96 in Copenhagen. With this Kosmisk Rum-installation Trondur Patursonn has tried to express the experience he had, when he sailed with a bamboo-fleet from China to America together with others in 1993. The journey lasted 106 days. He saw no other ships and was at the bamboo-fleet very close to the water, which made him be a part of the rhytm of the sea. And this gave him a kind of cosmic feeling of the sea.

He says that he has expressed it in the glass container by installing a mirror to walk on, but there is also a mirror above you, which gives a reflection with a depth of about 700 meters and a height of ab. 700 meters. This has the effect that you'll be in some kind of cosmic state. When you walk into the room there are no horizontal or vertical lines, it is like a feeling of walking upon the water, Trondur Patursson explains.




Apple-sculpture outside the museum in Ebeltoft (= Appletoft)

text and photo September 2013: grethe bachmann