Artist uses paperboard to shine light in dark places

Asylum, an installation by the artist Nils Olof Hedenskog has gone on display at the Industrial museum – the Old Iron Mill – of Iggesund, Sweden.

As was described here on June 9 (Exploring visions of security through paperboard), Hedenskog worked during the spring using Invercote paperboard from Iggesund, which had offered him the opportunity to be artist in residence.

“For me there exists a tension between the limitlessness of art and the fact that I am in a strict, production-oriented environment where everything is based on rationality,” he said earlier this year. “I have six months to create something that represents this tension.”

Hedenskog’s installation comprises six paperboard towers enclosing a space. Viewers can look into the space but not enter it. On the outside the towers are not coloured; their structure together with the lighting creates nuances of grey. On the inside they are painted in fluorescent and non-fluorescent colours, which create light that radiates out between the towers and through peepholes.

“I’m creating a reflection of the current situation in Europe – with hundreds of thousands of refugees who want to get inside but who most often only get a glimpse of what is inside Europe’s walls,” Hedenskog said.

Hedenskog used 7.2 tonnes of Invercote and six months of his time to finalise the project.