Creatures from the deep have been washed up on the shore in artist Anna Bak's installation Fatal Waves at the abandoned Old Fishing House at Odden Harbour. 

Anna Bak is a Danish artist and curator who explores the connection between humans and nature, focusing on the stories we've created to relate to it. Here at the Old Fishing House, the sea meets land, crashes on shores, and is influenced by the moon and planetary constellations. While animals can be tamed, the sea remains beyond human control – a dangerous force of nature, where beneath the surface strange things occur – something beyond our comprehension. 

A characteristic notion that runs across Bak's artistic work, is the fundamental human emotions such as desperation, loneliness, and melancholy. Here at the fisherman's house, her isolated aquatic creatures hint both at an underlying sadness, a story of destruction with wreckage scattered across the shore. 

But also hope and connection in an otherworldly sense as you encounter a mermaid, where one of her arms resembling the claw of a crab, her head covered by a starfish, while a sculpture that combines an octopus and lighthouse, half animal, half machine stands as a central actor, supervises those who dare to enter. 

Taking a closer look, and listening carefully to the giant sea shell – the sound of the sea is a symbolic reminder of humanity's connection with nature. Musician and composer Jullie Hjetland will use Anna Bak's shell sculpture as a resonator, letting her voice create a new link between the exhibition's elements. 

Fatal Waves, which premiered at Kunsthalle Thy won a special recognition award by the Danish Arts Council 2024. Anna Bak has exhibited internationally and published the book Wilderness Survival – A Guide to the Aesthetics of Survivalism through the Dutch publishing company and exhibition space Onomatopee. She lives and works in Copenhagen. 

The award-winning musician and composer Jullie Hjetland aka Lukkif has composed a sound piece, especially for one of Anna Bak’s sculptures as part of the installation.  

She will be performing the work live on Saturday 9. August (TBA) at The Old Fishing House in Odden Harbour.

Special thanks to Kim Rene Rasmussen for letting us use The Old Fisning House.

Anna Bak at Lost Farm Festival is supported by the New Carlsberg Foundation.

Photo: Anna Bak/Jullie Hjetland