Decoration

I contacted Poul Gernes in 1979 to ask if he would make an exhibition in the hall of the Danish School of Education Studies. He swiftly effectuated a large installation to provide light and lightness. It was paper cuttings, large rock mazes and cream pies made of plaster. The project inspired us to talk about a permanent artwork. 

At that time, a third of the hall was taken up by the library, which was separated by light partition walls. PG suggested to mount masonite boards on top to create a frieze across the over twenty-metre-wide hall. There were eighteen boards of 122 x 220 cm. They were painted white and had patterns in horizontal stripes in many colours. In 1979 I spent the Christmas Holidays painting with the Gernes family, after PG’s sketches and guidance. It was a really handsome frieze that gave the room character. The artwork stayed during the years the library was in the hall. Then the boards were deposited in the basement … and suddenly, they had all disappeared!