Echoes of Transformation: Into the Garden

Charlotte Søeborg Ohlsen (b. 1970) is a Danish visual artist and designer who graduated in Graphic Design from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. In her work, she explores the boundaries between visual art, design, and craft, with paper playing a central role both as a material and as a method. In recent years, she has developed artworks in metal and created site-specific installations in which nature, architecture, and the surrounding environment become active participants in the creation of meaning.

Charlotte’s artistic practice is characterized by meticulous craftsmanship and an exploration of transformation. Each work originates from a single sheet of paper that is cut and folded without the use of glue, allowing a simple flat surface to evolve into a complex three-dimensional form. Insects are a recurring motif in her work, referring both to the delicate balance of ecosystems and to the perpetual cycles of growth, transformation, and decay. When these forms are translated into brass or aluminum, the process of transformation continues, as the surfaces of the metals gradually change under the influence of climate and time.

Echoes of Transformation: Into the Garden is a site-specific installation spanning two distinct locations: the Akureyri Art Museum and the Akureyri Botanical Garden. Conceived as a single continuous work, it guides visitors from the museum’s interior spaces into the expansive garden beyond. Inside the museum, insects crafted from black paper appear to have settled on windows, walls, and throughout the exhibition space. In the Botanical Garden, similar forms re-emerge as sculptures in brass and aluminum, scattered throughout the landscape. Here, nature becomes an active participant in the ongoing development of the works. Weather, light, and the changing seasons shape the metal surfaces, making time itself a visible material. In this way, the visitor’s journey between the museum and the garden becomes part of the artwork itself, as the boundaries between building and landscape, nature and culture, fragility and permanence gradually dissolve.