conscious and the unconscious, between health and illhealth – and where there is a place for playing, fantasy and artistry. The borderland that moved westward as the Europeans occupied the land of the Native Americans has also affected Ingalena Klenell’s creativity. Before a major exhibition in the heart of America’s glass district, the Museum of Glass in Tacoma outside Seattle she followed the trail of the first white settler there. It turned out he was a Swede, Nicholas Delin, born in 1817,who on his way to the goldfields in the north stopped in Tacoma’s magnificent landscape and started the first
industrial sawmill . His gold came from the forests in the form of timber and the pleasure of seeing the mountains glowing red in the sun. Nicholas lived in harmony with the indigenous population until the army arrived and crushed the dream of equality for everybody. Nicholas road to Tacoma went from Skåne to Åland and then through Russia. In Borderland his initiative and thoughts are now present in Avesta. “My work can almost be classified as sculpture. Even so I often choose to call it handicraft with glass. I’m driven by a strong desire to create and the pleasure I’ve only met within the art community.”
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Ingalena Klenell was born in 1949 in Kristinehamn. She has studied at Orrefors Glass School, the School of Arts and throughout her adult life has continually broadened her mind by studying eco-philosophy and architectural lighting at various universities. She does her glass work in her own studio in the village of Edsbjörke near Sunne in Värmland.
Med stöd från Konstnärsnämnden/Supported by The Swedish Arts Grants Committee. Ljud/Sound: Elias Klenell.