The Vision of Wilderness

Does wilderness really excist out there or is a modern human construction of our mind? Something we like to imagine and yearn for? If so, where does this longing come from, how has our relation to the idea of wilderness developed? On the other hand wild nature is out there. And with a growing acknowledgement of the importance of wilder landscapes we have to challange our own mindset. 

After working in the Wadden Sea region for decades I have grown an interest and fascination of our changing and different approaches to landscapes where natures forces still, to some degree, play a major role. 

Even though the Wadden Sea is often called a wilderness - in terms of a huge, dynamic and ralatively wild wetland - it is not untouched at all. The question is, if any landscape is? Regardless our definitions of "the wild" og even of "nature", we always relate to the untamed or unused land.

This project seeks to compare and mirror the wilderness in the Wadden Sea with the one in the North Atlantic in Iceland. And to learn from the latter.

The Vision of Wilderness project is multidisciplinairy. Through my own creative investigation and observations in some of our wildest places I aim to come closer to nature my self. Nothing less. As a wildlife artist direct observation and a rather naturalistic interpretation is essential to how I work. Never the less expressive and abstract markmaing offer energy, rythm or contradictions to a piece of visual art. The wild places give us the oportunity to get lost i a chaos or order of unpredicted lines, structures and patterns. From the smallest elements in the landscape, such as algea and lichen, to the forms of geology. Inspiration lies out there, and you´ll never run dry. Still my work and "my voice" will be based on field sketches and observation, but the language will sound differently. There will hopefully be more to it than "just" birds. Maybe even a stronger sense of place. My medium is 

In this project I wish to expand my daily wilderness and work in a complete different but still compareable place. Iceland is in many perspectives as far as you can possible think from the Wadden Sea. Vulcanos, rock and glaciers against a tidal landscape made of sand, wind and currents.

But both are young landscapes, still being formed by natural forces (sometimes rapidly), the sea is eroding but is also building up land, pioneering vegetation colonize hostile terrains, sea birds are close and a part of our daily lives. On the top of everything - in both the physical world and in our minds - the wind and the storms are forming nature and people. Litterature, visual art and folk legends have all together influenced how people think of nature and landscape. 

By comparing, mirroring and discussing semilarities between the two wild places, I hope to develope a deeper understanding of our relationship with nature in general. Simultanious, through my own artwork, interviews and writing, I will let observations and interpretations infleunce on my own connection to landscape, deep time and geology.  And via exhibition and publishing tell a story about our common but complex and ever changing aproach to our landscapes. The project will stand out in its own right, but its wrtitings will also be intergrated in a coming book, I have been working on for a couple of years. 

Titled "The Voice of the Wadden Sea", my new book will hopefully be published at the end og 2026. My goal is to question how we, as society, think of nature and landscape in such a complex terrain in which we celebrate the Wadden Sea wilderness and proudly also tell the story about the conquering and control of water. The book will ask more questions than giving absolute answers. Well, to be correct, I will. Since 2022 I have met with and interviewed a lot of different experts, artists and others with a deep knowledge. Philosophers, poets, historians, a sound ecologist...the list is long. All the thoughts raised during these interesting talks feed into the book, and the Iceland experience and research will give me the chance to view the questions from another place and lend the eyes of a people living very close to another wilderness.