(two works, one of which is gone. The other is only experienced fragmentarily)
The artist Karen McCoy spent a whole month on Langeland researching both Tranekær and the rest of the island. And by trawling the area, she was inspired by the Langland (and Danish) small thatched houses, which she reproduced in her two-part work, Discourse on Light and Shade.
Just like the other old dwellings of the farming country, these two structures were also covered with straw, cut from the reeds by the lake and provided with "crow's feet", the characteristic wooden crosses on the roof.
The one small house stood as an open and empty stilt building by the lakeshore (it's gone now) – almost like a framing of the light topped with a voluminous and protective thatched roof, which with its upturned points got a bit of kinship with a pagoda.
The second house, which can still be seen on a hilltop between the forest edge and farmland, was like the negative of the first. Here the stilt house was filled in – first with stones, then with earth fed with plants, medicinal herbs and fruits protected by a hollow tree trunk. Beneath it all are containers with water from the castle lake, which was assessed as contaminated in 1993.
The intention was that the interior of the house would be revealed as the ground moved and flowers and trees would take root.
Artist: Karen McCoy / See more of McCoy's work here.
Year: 1993
Karen McCoy was born in the USA, and since her early works in TICKON in 1993 has received a multitude of awards and recognitions. Today she is professor emerita, but has otherwise been associated with the Kansas City Art Institute.