Air Burial (Oslo)
American artist Roni Horn has through a long career distinguished herself as one of the world’s leading contemporary artists. Horn draws inspiration from nature and the forces of nature, where changing weather conditions help to adjust our perception of objects and landscapes.
Air Burial (Oslo), is part of a group of cylindrical glass sculptures developed by Horn since the 1990s. The glass is melted and poured into the cast, before it is left to set over a period of several months. This process gives the work its characteristic expression of a translucent exterior and a transparant, seemingly liquid interior.
The title of the work refers to a Tibetan funerary ritual of leaving the body of the deceased lying on a mountain top, exposed to the elements of nature. Slowly but surely, the sculpture will break down over time becoming one with its surroundings.