In Karl Jonathan Sandegård’s exhibition The High Seas of Your Intrinsic Ocean, a series of large, mutable jelly sculptures greets us already outside Copenhagen Contemporary as well as in the foyer – and drip drop across Copenhagen.

Sandegård has a profound interest in the potential of water. So far, he has worked with its three most familiar states – solid, liquid and gas. The High Seas of Your Intrinsic Ocean unfolds his fascination with the more mysterious nature of water: its fourth state, the jelly-like plasma that is created when water is absorbed by a human or plant body.

All jelly sculptures are cast on site in different sizes. The singular materiality of the sculptures is created by mixing a gelling agent into hot water, causing the water to gel as it cools. The result is an organic jelly that is tantalizing in its sensuous mutability – like a living, mysterious body.

Water is necessary for life to arise and be sustained. It is present in all living organisms. Inside the body, water assumes a different form than the familiar ones. It is transformed into a state between liquid, gas and ice. Sandegård’s work is based on the concept of water as a messenger, fuel or vehicle transmitting vital information to the organism.

The sculptures are part of the artist’s longstanding exploration of water. Over the course of the exhibition, Sandegård kept working on the sculptures in an open lab outside CC. The works on display were still in progress, but were also naturally transformed over time into other forms. The gel itself is mutable and subject to a natural breakdown, and external conditions such as wind and weather continuously changed the expression of the sculptures. The High Seas of Your Intrinsic Ocean lets us flow with the water as it changes from liquid to jelly to airborne vapour and dripping water floating into its surroundings and the water around Refshale Island.

In September 2022, Copenhagen and all of Denmark hosted the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition, bringing more than 10,000 water professionals from around the world to the city. In connection with the congress, Copenhagen Contemporary and the water solution company Aquaporin worked together to engage the public in the current global debate and highlight the essential nature of water. This partnership was embodied in The High Seas of Your Intrinsic Ocean, shown at CC and at three other venues across the city: Aquaporin’s headquarters, the World Water Congress at Bella Center and Industriens Hus.