Last week, we sat down with metalwork artist Ane Christensen for an in-depth conversation about her creative process, the themes driving her practice, and how an abstract concept finally takes physical form.
During our chat, Ane described a continuous thread connecting her work over the past 25 years. Rather than jumping between unrelated ideas, each of her series naturally evolves out of the last through ongoing experimentation and trial and error - progressing from the early Cube Series to the Ghost and Fading Vessel collections, and beyond.
“Everything is connected, and though the work might look very different, there is a thread running through all my work spanning the last 25 years.”
At the core of Ane’s practice is spatialisation: how a piece inhabits a room and how our perception of it shifts over time. Her structures interact fluidly with their surroundings, changing in weight and presence depending on the viewer's vantage point, while shadows trace the movement of the sun.
This interplay with shadows is deeply rooted in her Scandinavian heritage and a lifelong relationship with light. What started as an intuitive element has grown into a deliberate focus, with Ane constantly testing how much light a piece can hold while keeping its structural integrity intact.
“It took me years to realise that despite working in a dense, solid material, every piece I make has an opening or an area which allows the light in.”
Ultimately, through her careful choreography of light and shadow, Ane hopes to evoke a lasting sense of wonder and joy.
“Scandinavians are experts at getting through the dark months. I think there is an unspoken cultural acceptance that you can only truly enjoy the light if you also experience the dark.”
Read the full interview with Ane Christensen here.
