︎
Bjarne Melgaard – Glass Candy
“A gaze toward childhood, memories, and formative experiences, letting these form the point of departure for an artistic project that moves in the tension between vulnerability and resistance. The exhibition takes shape around the idea of making a book for children — not as a pedagogical project, but as a structural and emotional framework.”
From the exhibition text
Music functions as a governing parameter in animation and video, where visual processes are activated through technology drawn from VJing and live visuals. Colour generation, pixel displacement, and image distortion arise as direct responses to the dynamics and structure of sound.
The works originate from monochrome line drawings, which in a generative improvisational process with real-time feedback meet the music. The digital video material is archived, and the process results in a selection of still images in colour. These are finally combined with the original line drawings to form the finished motifs.
The music driving the animations consists of, at the time, unreleased material by the Black Metal bands Thorns and Slagmaur. The works carry an inherent relationship to the music’s structure and cultural significance without this being directly readable in visual terms.
The screen prints are square in format, similar in size to vinyl record covers, and made to relate to the oversized pages of a children’s book.
Halvor Bodin
Other projects with or about Bjarne Melgaard on this site
View all older projects with Bjarne Melgaard in my archive
2026
Bjarne Melgaard exhibition at Galleri Kobbel in Kristiansand, Norway 260130—260328.
Line drawings and hand-colouring on screen prints: Bjarne Melgaard
Animation/colour artwork and composition on all the screen prints and the window foil: Halvor Bodin
Screen printing on paper and clothing: 10/10, Oslo
Documentation photos: Galleri Kobbel
Press:
“The most potent work in the exhibition is the 11 x 3 metre window film Glass Candy. It is lush, painterly, and playful, and gives me a genuine art experience this evening. Here Melgaard unfolds his playful line in a large format and demonstrates what a confident colourist he is. This is simply wonderful and works as eye candy here in the winter storm.”
Frida Forsgren, Fædrelandsvennen 260202
Bjarne Melgaard exhibition at Galleri Kobbel in Kristiansand, Norway 260130—260328.
Line drawings and hand-colouring on screen prints: Bjarne Melgaard
Animation/colour artwork and composition on all the screen prints and the window foil: Halvor Bodin
Screen printing on paper and clothing: 10/10, Oslo
Documentation photos: Galleri Kobbel
Press:
“The most potent work in the exhibition is the 11 x 3 metre window film Glass Candy. It is lush, painterly, and playful, and gives me a genuine art experience this evening. Here Melgaard unfolds his playful line in a large format and demonstrates what a confident colourist he is. This is simply wonderful and works as eye candy here in the winter storm.”
Frida Forsgren, Fædrelandsvennen 260202
Bjarne Melgaard
The 2,000 unique covers of this book, designed by Halvor Bodin, constitute the largest single presentation of Melgaard’s artistic practice. However, since no one will ever see all the books together, this also reflects the experience of working through the material on which the book is based. Melgaard’s body of work is so extensive, multifaceted, and dispersed across numerous exhibitions, publications, and other forms of presentation that achieving a complete overview would be impossible.
From a traditional art historical perspective, a catalogue raisonné is a comprehensive record of an artist’s entire output. If anyone were to attempt such a project for Melgaard in the future, it would likely be the most extensive of its kind in Norwegian art history. So far, however, the artist himself has actively and consciously avoided structuring his artistic production within a hierarchical framework.
A recurring theme in this book is precisely how this approach has been central to Melgaard’s artistic practice—both within individual drawings and paintings and in the way he has produced exhibitions and the relationships between them.
(From Erlend Hammer’s preface)
© Uten Tittel 2025
Author: Erlend Hammer
Publishing editor: Marcus Bøhn
Image editors: Halvor Bodin and Erlend Hammer
Design/repro: Halvor Bodin
Coding of database export: Jonni™
Copyright for works by Bjarne Melgaard
© Bjarne Melgaard/BONO 2025
Uten Tittel
View all projects for Uten Tittel
View all older projects with Bjarne Melgaard in my archive
2025
19 x 24 cm
256 pages
ISBN 978-82-93502-52-4
Livonia Print SIA, 2025, Latvia
Paper: Arctic Print White 150 g/m²
Cover: Polar Rough 300 g/m²
Coloured edges
Typography: Sans Sans/Sans Flux (MuirMcNeil)
Language: Norwegian
2000 numbered books with unique covers. 4000 cover images (front and back). 367 images in the interior.
19 x 24 cm
256 pages
ISBN 978-82-93502-52-4
Livonia Print SIA, 2025, Latvia
Paper: Arctic Print White 150 g/m²
Cover: Polar Rough 300 g/m²
Coloured edges
Typography: Sans Sans/Sans Flux (MuirMcNeil)
Language: Norwegian
2000 numbered books with unique covers. 4000 cover images (front and back). 367 images in the interior.
