Glance

Irma Salo Jæger made her breakthrough with a solo exhibition at Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo in 1968. Along with artists such as Jakob Weidemann, Inger Sitter, and Gunnar S. Gundersen, she helped establish abstract painting in Norway, using strict horizontal and vertical lines and coloured areas to express her art.

In 1970 Jæger teamed up with the poet Jan Erik Vold and the composer Sigurd Berge to carry out a commission for the recently opened Henie Onstad Kunstsenter outside of Oslo. The task was to create a work of art relating to the theme “Man in Space”, and together the trio created the multimedia work Glance. As a painter, Jæger wanted the art to appeal to other senses than just sight. It was she who constructed the work’s sculptural and mobile component, while Vold wrote the poems and Berge composed a soundscape. The artists were interested in exploring how the use of new audiovisual technology in art would create a new communication with the viewers. Glance originally consisted of five square framework modules, assembled in a large construction. Inside the modules are mobile blades with plastic rings in primary colours. The sounds, movements, and poetry recitals were synchronized by a custom-made electronic system that controlled the various motors, spotlights, lasers, mirrors, loudspeakers, projectors, and playback equipment. Jæger was a pioneer in this field, presenting a kinetic work that embraced its surroundings more broadly than the other kinetic works of the 1960s. Glance is one of the earliest modern examples of a Gesamtkunstwerk, based on collaboration between various art forms and the era’s hypermodern technology.