Black
The Genuine Space of Death, Endings, and Letting Go
November 2026
Helene Lundbye Petersen on Pain, Loss, and the Possibility of Renewal
by Maria Belton
General Introduction
In a world saturated with images, information and noise, Danish artist and philosopher Helene Lundbye Petersen has built an entire artistic universe around connection, presence, and colour. Her life’s work, /WhitePageProject, began with a single gesture : the offering of a blank white page — and has since evolved into a living, breathing artwork that weaves together philosophy, performance, writing, and painting. At its core lies a call to return to what she names the Genuine: the raw, unfiltered resonance between self, other, and existence itself. Through her Colour Spectrum of Genuine Being, each hue becomes a space of emotion and insight — an experience to enter rather than a concept to grasp.
The Black Space
The Colour Spectrum almost concludes with Black. What kind of space does it represent?
Black is the space of death, endings, and letting go.
I wrote The Black Book - on Death when I was in New York. I visited Egyptian Death temples, went to graveyards, and drank whisky that burned my throat. It took me only five days to write it. It was extremely intense. During those days I mourned and cried about things I did not even know I carried. I connected very deeply with the experience of death, loss and sorrow. It is a difficult subject, but it is also an unavoidable part of life. Giving death a space means allowing ourselves to understand the roots of many of our fears — our anxieties, grief and the sadness that accompanies them.
But at the same time, while writing the book, I felt that it became almost a declaration of love for life. Moving through everything that feels heavy and painful also reveals how extraordinary it is to exist.
And how do you capture that pain in the book?
I describe pain through an image that also appears in the paintings: needles piercing the skin.
You may feel them as you move, as you walk through life. But if you never stop to notice them — if you never remove them — they remain there. Over time, they become part of you, even though they continue to hurt.
The work is to recognise the needles. To carefully remove them. To acknowledge the wound.
When pain is allowed to reveal itself, something shifts. We can move through it, and something new can emerge on the other side. We can become free again.
Portraying Endings of the Year 2020, Forrest and Plantation, Petersværft, Langebæk, Denmark, Photo by Morten Eggert.
How does this idea appear in the paintings connected to the Black Space?
There are four paintings in the Black series. The first three follow the image of the needles.
Living inevitably brings experiences that wound us. Events happen. Feelings arise — some we understand, others we cannot explain. Pain is part of being alive.
The paintings make this visible. The first shows a single needle — one wound that has entered the skin. The next shows two. Then five. Gradually, the image intensifies, revealing how unprocessed experiences can gather within us over time.
The fourth and final Black painting shows a half moon — a sign of renewal after the work of letting go. Through grief, mourning, or sadness, something is cleared, making space for what is ready to emerge.
Is Black only a personal process of mourning?
Beyond the personal level, Black also has a collective dimension.
Societies and communities carry wounds too. If we want to resolve conflicts — whether within societies or between nations — we must look directly at the traumas and harms that have taken place. We must face the wounds history has created.
Only then can they begin to heal.
If we refuse this work, the pain does not disappear. It remains beneath the surface, and history begins to repeat itself.
And with the fourth painting, you also underline that although Black is the space of hardship, grief, and loss, it is also the space that allows renewal.
Yes. When pain is faced and released, something new can begin. In that sense, the Black Space opens the possibility of returning to White — to a new beginning.
Black therefore becomes a key space in the Colour Spectrum. It is the passage through which life renews itself.
Interestingly, there is also a small cycle within the Colour Spectrum itself?
Yes. The Black, Brown, and Pink books are deeply connected.
The original handwritten Black Book has brown-painted edges, reflecting the idea that everything that dies becomes nourishment for something new.
The Brown Book has red edges, like blood, connecting it to the Pink Space — the emergence of a unique and personal being.
And the Pink Book carries black edges, reminding us that everything that comes into existence will one day return to Black.
In this way, the colours form a cycle.
Death nourishes life. Life becomes being. Being eventually returns to death.
And the movement continues.
What do you hope people experience when they encounter the Black works?
Perhaps the courage to look directly at what hurts.
Black reminds us that grief, loss, and endings are not separate from life — they are part of it. When we allow ourselves to face them honestly, we may also discover something unexpected: a deep love for existence itself.
Because it is precisely through recognising the fragility of life that we realise how precious it is.
And it is often through endings that we find the possibility of beginning again.
To read more about the Black Space, dive into her exhibition here: The Black Space
Find the Black Print that calls to you:
