Passage

Nordskoven

"Passage" is an installation featuring four castings of dead animals in clear polyester. The work has two fundamentally different temporal dimensions: First, there is the synthetic and relatively indestructible polyester; second, there are the animals’ bodies, whose parts decompose much more quickly, albeit at different rates. The softer tissues decompose first—a process accelerated by the greenhouse effect of sunlight on the blocks. Some of the blocks crack when the fluids inside the animals expand under high or freezing temperatures, creating fissures that open up to the surrounding environment. These fissures serve as a connection between the encased animals and the rest of the forest—here, fluids and decomposed tissue can escape, and small animals and bacteria can enter. Is there anything in the forest that could also break down bones, feathers, and fur? Will the blocks then remain as indestructible imprints of substances that have long since been absorbed into the forest’s environment and redistributed time and again?
*Passage* is part of a series of four works in *Deep Forest Art Land*: *Extremity*, *Passage*, *Digestion*, and *Plateau*.