Come in with confidence, and you will be warmly received

The experience of the lighthouse is one of radiance: flickering, diffused light, reflections and afterimages. Tending the light becomes a ritual of watchfulness, while its flash, visible from afar, evokes the presence of a third.

Michał Siarek’s exhibition explores the many dimensions of experiencing light at the northernmost lighthouse on the European continent. For several years, the artist worked with the Norwegian Coastal Administration as an artist-in-residence and lighthouse keeper. During this time, he photographed the optical phenomena associated with the station: the beam sweeping across the Arctic landscape and refracting through droplets during winter storms, as well as the inverse phenomenon—the concentration of light within the lighthouse, when, at the onset of the polar day, the sun aligned with the lens.

The photographs are accompanied by a light-based object constructed from historical lighthouse components and lenses. The project developed alongside the modernisation of Norway’s lighthouses, which brought the era of Fresnel apparatuses and Victorian lighting systems to an end. Siarek brings into the gallery an experience that can no longer be encountered at the sites where it first occurred.