A far-travelling sea monster
At first glance, Valkyrie Rán appears almost like a giant, suspended sea creature, clinging to ARoS’s white architecture in a strange symbiosis. The 50-metre-long installation hangs from the museum ceiling, weaving its way from the main entrance to the back entrance, vertically extending through several storeys. The body of the Valkyrie may be described as an oblong shape sprouting ‘uvulas’ and ‘tentacles’, and the entire piece is covered in a giant collage of textiles, sequins, fringe, pompoms and crocheted patterns.
The installation also incorporates an intricate system of programmable LED light chains running along the body with an effect reminiscent of the bio-luminescence of deep-sea creatures. Finally, the piece is accompanied by a subtle soundscape composed by the musicologist Jonas Runa with inspiration from the rushing of the sea and the sound of breathing. According to Vasconcelos, the maritime motif forms a central theme for Valkyrie Rán, which is named after two figures from Norse mythology: the Valkyries, which collected the dead warriors from the battlefield and brought them up to enjoy the afterlife in Valhalla, and the capricious sea goddess Rán, who would pull hapless sailors to their death by drowning. In Vasconcelos’s piece, however, the sea symbolism takes on a more positive note. The artist explains:
‘We are all very much connected! We all share the same European culture. There are so many cross-references between the North and the South. When I started on the Valkyrie-series I immediately associated them with the narrative of the amazing flying female creatures soaring above the battlefields. The name Rán is a reference to a specific sea deity in Norse mythology whose name is synonymous with waves. I like the idea of the sea as a symbol of travelling and connecting people across boarders.’ *
When opposites meet
The Valkyrie has indeed, literally travelled all the way from the artist’s home in Portugal to Denmark, as its creation was only possible thanks to the efforts of a team of 50 specialists working in Vasconcelos’s studio in Lisbon. The team’s areas of expertise include sewing, lace-making, crocheting, textile construction, embroidery, electrical installations and programing. The result is a hybrid creation that merges old craft traditions with modern technologies – an endeavour that the artist sees as testimony to the potential of the collective:
‘Our world is becoming very cold. Europe too, is lost in its preoccupation with the individual. Loneliness is a big problem. But working in group gives you so much, you learn so much. The collective process is very dynamic and opens up to sponteneity and impulsiveness. My pieces really multicultural and an example of a modern global world’ *
This fusion of contrasts and opposites and the effort to challenge conventional expectations are at the core of Vasconcelos’s practice. Valkyrie Rán is no exception, as the piece is simultaneously a craft maker’s piece, an installation, a soft toy and a monumental, architectural intervention into the museum space. Here, the organic meets the artificial, and the analogue meets the digital. ‘A female artist is expected to make small, dainty, uncomplicated works of art. That is a prejudice that I will always continue to challenge,’ Vasconcelos concludes.
*All quotes are from the exhibition catalog Textures of Life, 2016, ARoS
