Elsebet Rahlff
all we are saying..., 2025

Created for across, with, nearby, Elsebet Rahlff’s new work draws from the language of maritime signalling to create a space of quiet attention and reflection. 300 white pennants shown on the Literature Boat Epos in collaboration with the wind, rain, sunlight, and sea. Suspended across the aft deck within multiple overhead flag cords are white triangular pennants, made from recycled fabrics and treated with caustic soda for strength and durability. Varying in their construction — perforated, layered, or simply cut — the flags form a dynamic mass in motion, activated by even the slightest breeze at sea.

Throughout her career, Rahlff has maintained an open and experimental approach to materials and techniques, while flags and their reinterpretation have been a recurring motif in her work since the 1970s. In earlier projects, such as Variasjon over det norske flagg (Variations on the Norwegian Flag) (1974), she subtly altered national symbols to question the fragility of identity and sovereignty. In Billedflagg/Hverdagsflagg (1980–82), she filled flag forms with everyday objects as a way of asking the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, ‘could you send young men, soldiers, to be killed under these flags?’ At that time, the Falklands War was raging between Argentina and the United Kingdom.

Onboard Epos, the pennants offer no directive, apart from being huge, fragile, and white, creating a contemplative space that is open for reflection on peace, children, and our future. Referencing the Epos theme of ‘Water as a Linker and Separator’ for across, with, nearby, Rahlff’s work reimagines the flag not as a fixed symbol, but as responsive, open, and alive to its surroundings.

Elsebet Rahlff (b. 1940, Copenhagen) was educated in Copenhagen and Paris and is a visual artist and professor. Rahlff was a member of Gruppe 66 and part of the exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall in 1966, and later in the exhibitions Konkret Analyse (Concrete Analysis), (1970) and Samliv (Common Life) (1977/78). Rahlff played a major role in the presentation of new art practices such as happenings, cross-over collaborations, and installation works. Rahlff was also a member of the artist group Finnegårdskretsen, who founded Galleri 1, Bergen in 1969. For many years she lectured and tutored at Bergen School of Art, Craft, and Design (KMD). Her major art project, World Flags, co-produced by BIT-Teatergarasjen, Bergen and the European Capital of Culture cities Copenhagen, Bergen, Brussels, and Reykjavik, has been shown in a number of European cities as well as in Brazil. In 2000, World Flags comprised 200 grey flags with perforated national symbols, which were installed upon 100 flagpoles.