Ananda Serné's Nightblooming Explores Light, Orchids, and Circadian Rhythms at Hordaland Kunstsenter

Ananda Serné's exhibition Nightblooming at Hordaland Kunstsenter in Bergen examines light's effects on organisms and materials, inspired by her visit to an orchid nursery in Taiwan. The nursery supplies the world's largest flower auction near Amsterdam, where orchids endure days without sunlight during transport. Serné's works include 16mm film footage of Dutch warehouses with hypnotic forklift circuits, textile pieces treated with light-sensitive substances and exposed at sunrise, silk-screen prints on green glass illuminated by daylight, and handblown green glass sculptures lit from within. The exhibition continues her recent focus on insomnia and circadian rhythms, while also critiquing humanity's commercialization of nature. Serné, a Dutch writer and visual artist based in Bergen, holds an MA from Iceland University of the Arts and has completed residencies at Jan van Eyck Academie and others. Her debut novel Nachtbloeiers (2022), about a future marked by insomnia possibly caused by flowers, was nominated for the Libris Literature Prize. Her second novel is due in 2026.