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[April 1st 2002]
Exhibition
Eva Hjorth: Med og Uden, (With and
Without) 200x90x800, 20.000
Forårsudstillingen 2002 (The
Spring Exhibition)
- Food for thought
March 9th - April 1st 2002
Charlottenborg
Nyhavn 2, DK-1051 Copenhagen K
Tel. +45 33 11 11 91, fax +45 33 11 13 03
Mo-Su 10-17, We 10-19
foraar-efteraar@charlottenborg-fonden.dk
www.charlottenborg-art.dk
The censured exhibition, the Forårsudstilling
at Charlottenborg in Copenhagen (Just across the square from Hotel
d'Angleterre, adjacent to the Royal Academy of Fine Art), is a traditional
annual event where talents surface, and the public get a chance
to get a glimpse of the state of the arts in Denmark. An exclusive
group of censors are invited every year, to take on the difficult
task of selecting which works are to be shown. This endeavour takes
several painstaking days to accomplish. Literally thousands of works
are handed in by hundreds of hopeful artists from all over the country,
but only a few remain as the lucky chosen few, selected to exhibit
at an exhibition that usually enjoys the benefit of a substantial
amount of attention from the Danish media, the public and young
up and coming artists. kopenhagen.dk's Julie Damgaard rapports.
I don't have to go to Nyhavn (right next to to Charlottenborg)
in March, and eat ice creams without gloves on, to convince myself
that winter has passed. Instead, my harbingers of spring are all
the new talents at Charlottenborg. In times marked by severe cuts
on the arts in Denmark this exhibition proves that there's a whole
lot of talent, commitment and star quality going on out there, which
makes me to look upon the future from a completely different and
far more optimistic perspective.
For the Forårsudstillingen 2002 there are 94 debutants amongst
the 128 artists represented here. In all 272 works have been selected
for the public to see. This is only a fraction of the total amount
of 3199 works, which were entered.
 
Lona Lona Dögg Christensen, Hildur Margrétasdóttir
og Thidrik Hansson:
Fast Art, 200x250x150 cm
Fast Art is a novel concept at this years Forårsudstilling,
and by the look of things a durable one. The three artists Lona
Dögg Christensen, Hildur Margretasdóttir and Thidrik Hansson, have
set up a hot-dog stand in the front hall of Charlottenborg, where
instead of hotdogs, art is being sold. The little wrapped up works
of art lie neatly side by side awaiting their new owners, but remember
to check the expiry date before you shop. I noticed a few items
grossly exceeding it, as several works were packed 2.8.00, expiry
date 8.11.00.........
 
Frederikke Aagaard: Private Pics (2
parts), 80x210, 6.000,-
Frederikke Aagaard's work doesn't transgress an expiry date but
rather contravenes what's private. The artist has stuck a selection
of private picks from festive occasions on two doors, hung up horizontally
on the wall. This strategy isn't especially spectacular in itself,
it's rather the way she has obtained these photographs, which is
interesting. Aagaard has paid for these representations of human
experiences. She bought eight uncollected sets of prints and negatives
for the sum of 80 kroner, from a photo shop on Christianshavn. She
has chosen to use three of the films in her work, photographs that
are "all taken at similar occasions: a dinner for 19 people." The
artist has also drawn up the layout of the furnishing of the rooms
in which the occasion took place; the positions of the different
guests in relation to each other, as well as the actions carried
out on the photographs. Private Picks allows us to look behind
a door, which otherwise would stay closed.
 
Line Kristensen: Kære Dagbog,
(Dear Diary) 150x100x40, 30.000
Line Kristensen's Kære Dagbog (Dear Diary) also gives us
a glimpse of an otherwise anonymous persons life. Via bank statements
with information on place, date, shop and amount, you get a rather
varied idea of the artist behind the work, her preferences and patterns
of behaviour . As Line Kristensen describes it, it's a "subconscious
digital registration of ones actions, which is a tell tale on your
behavour, it can be investigated and controlled. Therefore it is
also more adversary, present, and revealing than the consciously
written diary."
Tytte Buus: Uden Titel, (without title)
diameter 168, 14.000,-
 
Eva Hjorth: Med og Uden, (with and
without) 200x90x800, 20.000
A similar creative line of thought you find in the work of Tytte
Buus, who presents a flowerlike floor installation of unused sanitary
towels, and the work of Eva Hjort who with Med og Uden shows
us how to take off pants and bra without having to undress completely.
Tove Storch: Læg dig under dynen!,
(get under the duvet!) 50x120x220, 17.000,-
It is characteristic for many of the works exhibited here that
they deal with the intimate and personal, without necessarily transgressing
boundaries of any kind. Tove Storch's sculpture Læg dig under
dynen challenges the viewer to partake in the very private action
of going to bed, under a duvet weighing 80 kg. The artist recommends
that the 'treatment' be carried out for the duration of 5 minutes.
The idea of lying under 80 kg for five minutes gives this reporter
somewhat uncanny associations...
The humorous and cunning, and even bizarre features, are a distinctive
strategy amongst several of the artists, who really seem to know
how to get their message across.
 
Hanne Åse Pedersen: Love Hurts:
1. Morgengaven, (Morning gift) 11x16, 2. Kassesuccessen,
(Box office winner) 8x14, Large plasters 75,- a piece, small plasters
50,- a piece. 3. Klejnekassen, (The cash boks) 7x11
Hanne Åse Pedersen's Love Hurts tells us that because love
hurts, we need a 'love-aid'; a box full of decorative plasters for
our 'wounds'. She reminds us that 'love is giving', but not to such
a degree that there isn't anything in it for the giver. "Rigtige
piger - ta´r penge for det" (Real girls ask to be paid for it) underlines
the artists view; she even sets her price: Hundert Millionen
Mark... Which ought to be enough. Pedersen's three boxes make
up a biting ironic comment to contemporary love battling with the
conditions of today's life styles.
Sabina Mlejnek: En Fluesvamp, (amanita
mushroom)55x65, 4.500,-
Sabina Mlejnek seems to get on just fine on her own. En Fluesvamp
(an amanita mushroom) is described my Mlejnek as "a staged image
of masturbation." Making use of a specific perspective, the auto-erotic
tones of the motive become especially poignant because what we see
is not the whole body of someone, but rather a representation of
a section of the body, as it looks when we look down at ourselves.
With this strategy an almost natural sense of identification occurs,
which shifts the position of the viewer to being the one who is
looked at, form voyeur to the object of the voyeuristic gaze. This
is emphasized by the double play of the mushroom as symbol, as phallic
image and hallucinatory drug.
Lennard Grahn (music by Tim Hinman and text
by Morten Alsinger): Vejen hvor du bor
A different, but also rather hallucinatory experience, is seen
in the work of Rose Eken's Interior. A video, which sends
the viewer floating through landscapes and cityscapes, as if in
a tunnel. The view of the world has been distorted, and enticing
ambient music enforces this psychedelic effect making it very convincing…
Jakob Jensen: Superlandskab I og
Superlandskab II, (Super landscape I+ II) 50x75, 1.000,- pr.
stk
Another compelling and 'fantastic' landscape has been created by
Jakob Jensen. Superlandskab I-III (Super Landscape I-III)
are super gorgeous and thorough, but even perfection can be tiresome
at times.
Jakob Wegener: Attempts at photographing
Vapour #1-4, 5.000,- pr. stk.
In this respect the work of Jacob Wegener is a bit more in the
line with the nature of things. In his Attempts at photographing
Vapour # 1-4 the artist has mixed photography with video. Four
images of water vapour have been placed side by side on a wall,
and it takes a while for the viewer to become aware of the fact
that one of the images is actually a video projection. You suddenly
realise that, just like vapour, this image is a perishable entity.
Like vapour, dependant on factors such as water and heat, this 'living'
image is dependant on its source of light, electricity, power, and
will disappear the moment the machine is switched off. It's interesting
that the media, which most clearly conveys the nature of water vapour
here, the video, is such a 'fragile' thing in itself.
Michael Mørkholt: Motorforstærker,
video, 4,15 min.
A similarly 'fragile' thing is sound, which is probably why the
volume has been turned up to the degree it has in Michael Mørkholt's
funny little video Motorforstærker (Motor amplifier). Here
you see a person (the artist?) fastening an amplifier on to the
back of his bicycle, pointing a microphone in the direction of the
back wheel and then biking along, producing a really effective motor
like roaring sound, made by the rotation of the back wheel.
Jakob Ørsted: Buddymovies (Buddy
movies) (Slides 80,- a piece.)
In the same room you find Jakob Ørsted's Buddymovies, a collage
of different scenes from films, which all focus on the emotional
relations between men. It can seem almost liberating to witness
these so-called 'male-bonding' sessions, but when several of them
at a time are brought out of their contexts, and put together in
a sequence reminiscent of cavalcade, they conjure up quite unintentional
and involuntary comic undertones...
 
Claus Ejnar: Uden Titel, (Without Title)
150x150, 8.200,-. Uden Titel, (Without Title) 150x150, 8.200,-
 
Francois Top: 32, 250x250, 10.000,-
Quite a different approach into the strategy of comic undertones
you see in the work of Claus Ejner and Francois Top. Claus Ejner's
satirical comics come close to the work of artists like Christian
Schmidt-Rasmussen, David Shrigley and Jakob Boeskov. Francois Top
revives the little blue Snøvs figure from his childhood, in a crazy
narrative without many words.
 
Lene Barnkob Kaas: Tur/Retur (Ved en sur
slimet bæk...), (Return ticket - by a rotten grimy creek)
20x60, 4.000,-.
Stol, (Chair) 100x45x150, 15.500,-
Then there's a different richness in words in Lene Barnkob Kaas's
work Tur/Retur (ved en sur slimet bæk...) (Return ticket
- by a rotten grimy creek), but this text is not as easily
accessible, as it's been written on a round cushion in the form
of an outgoing spiral. I shan't go into any more details here, but
can only say that this story is not for people with fragile souls.
Next to this you see Kaas's other piece Stol (Chair): An
object covered with pink plush, and with an in-built TV screen,
showing a recording of a pair of hands caressing the soft material
as if it were a body.
 
Ann Louise Andersen: Uden Titel, (Without
Title) 820x50, 9.000,-
Pink plush is also in mode in Ann Louise Andersen's piece, a ladder
literally trying to reach for the top, but the artist has had to
realise that it won't quite work, and therefore has had to remain
at floor level.
Marianne Blank: Fly me to the moon,
81x81, 30.000
Marianne Blank is also a bit of a high flyer. The bid Fly me
to the moon can hardly be a clearer statement to this effect,
and the three paintings of bees and flowers are, seen in relation
to the title, easy enough to decode. The reference to the erotic
becoming very clear.
Kathrine Ærtebjerg: I bunden af skoven
ligger den falliske moder, fra hendes mave vokser et træ,
(In the depths of the wood lies the phallic mother, from her stomach
a tree grows) 204x302, 15.000,-
In the work by Kathrine Ærtebjerg the ultimate merging of the sexes
is experienced. Ærtebjerg says that her inspiration for the motive
(the phallic mother) has come from two sources: The French theorist,
writer and psychoanalysist Julia Kristeva and the artist Marcel
Duchamp. Kristeva's text Maternité selon Giovanni Bellini, deals
with the body of the mother, showing how the woman becomes phallic,
at the very moment she is given the power of procreation, because
the power of creation is seen to be determined by the logic of the
phallus. Marcel Duchamp's installation Etant Donnés also
has the body at its centre of concern. Two holes in an old wooden
door allow the viewer to peep in on a naked body, supposedly a woman's
body, but when you look closely the sex seems to be distorted, female
and male at the same time. In Ærtebjerg's work the androgynous body
is characteristically placed in a dreamlike universe.
Lisbeth Thingholm: Uden Titel, 140x300,
15.000,-. Uden Titel, 140x300, 15.000,-. Uden Titel,
140x300, 15.000,-
Not far from Ærtebjerg is Lisbeth Thingholm's colourful paintings
of various toys, all represented in enormous proportions, and seemingly
on their way to conquer the room, out of the reach of the hands
of eager children and their busily tidying-up parents.
Jennifer Idrizl: One and three quarters,
100x80, 19.000,-
Another artist who works with distortion is Jennifer Idrizl. Her
washbasin with an enormous plug makes one think of Duchamp's readymades,
as well as Oldenburg's oversized articles for everyday use. Her
work lies, by its own accord, in the realm of this mixing up of
the absurd with the amusing, which characterises their work.
Lene Margrethe Bang: Badeværelset
1, (Bathroom 1) 120x100, 12.000,-. Badeværelset 2,(Bathroom
2) 120x100, 12.000,-
Lene Margrethe Bang also has her eye on the washbasin as motive.
In Badeværelset I+2 (Bathroom 1+2) she invites the viewer
into one of the most private rooms of the building, and here disturbs
the logic and habitual order, which usually defines our toilette
ritual completely. The distortion of perspectives and the obscure
reflections turn a visit to the bathroom into a rather precarious
affaire.
 
Rasmus Krause: Walking Men, 200x100x40,
30.000,-
Rasmus Krause's work Walking Men also disturbs the viewers
sense of reality. I simply cannot grasp how the artist has managed
to make the little legs lift their knees so realistically, in their
uninterrupted walkabout. This is an artist I really look forward
to seeing work from again.
 
Jesper Weylandt: Mikrofiguration 1-6,
2.700,- a piece.
If we're going to be seeing more work by artists Jesper Weylandt
and Mads Rafte Heins is literally not for me to say. The two artists,
presented in the same room, seem to have competed on who could make
the smallest, most minimal work of art. Mads Heins' graphical work
isn't much larger than the standard sign on the wall identifying
the work, and Jesper Weylandt's microfigurations aren't clear to
anyone unless you look at them though a magnifying glass, which
the artist generously informed the public of at the opening, where
such items were passed around amongst the viewers. These microfigurations
really should be looked at very carefully because they are so precisely
and superiorly made.
Esben Klemann: Uden Titel, 120x50,
pris efter aftale. Uden Titel, 120x80.
 
Charlotte Breinholt: Nachtfalter, 120x30,
Privateje. Sonde, 140x40.
Last but not least I want to mention Esben Klemann and Charlotte
Breinholt, who have entered very beautiful artworks for the exhibition:
Esben Klemann's sculptures, a round and a square, go really well
together, despite their contrasting expressions. One is full of
large holes that open out towards the surrounding room and the audiences,
the other with small holes, seeming to close in on itself, but both
have a quality and a credence to them that is very impressive.
Charlotte Breinholt's ethereally beautifully paper objects, which
look like carefully formed lampshades, or the kind of decorations
made out of folded crepe paper that can be unfolded for festive
occasions, don't seem to demand a lot of attention, but nevertheless
have a very strong appeal and effect on the viewer, like a moth
to a flame.
Translated by Sophie Pucill
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