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[May 25th 2002]
interview
Zero Sum Gain - Temptation
and prohibition
Ulrik Heltoft at Gustaf Gimm
The exhibits on Zero Sum Gain, which
is launched chez Gustaf Gimm - one of the small galleries on Bryggen
(Copenhagen's "left side") are extremely compressed in
expression, at the same time as they are wide open. Pitfalls are
dangerously tempting and points to the need for looking at the picture
from other angles - maybe the viewer ought to take a much closer
look, maybe to take a look at the plurality of details in the picture.
The perceptional fixation on the aesthetic "truth" in
the picture is incorporated in the picture as a sort of detour.
With artist Ulrik Heltoft, who is a graduate from the Danish
Academy of Arts and recently returned from attending Yale University,
one experiences a transition from an obsolete to a "new"
order that is less simple, less tempting and deep. Text: Camilla
Hovgaard. Photo: Pressfotos. Translated by Hargrave and
edited by Sophie Pucill.
Galleri Gustaf Gimm
Njalsgade 21 H
DK 2300 Copenhagen S
Denmark
phone (+45) 32 96 09 67
www.gustafgimm.com
info@gustafgimm.com
April 12 - May 18 2002
open tu - fri noon-5 pm, sat noon - 3 pm
press
release
Naturally I am completely taken by Helltoft's soft manipulation
and react as he had probably foreseen it; bad feelings from lack
of insight overwhelm me. As I'm about to fix my aesthetic blindness
by getting the data about him and a hint of "what's it's all
about" he explains: "It is not about understanding it
the correct way, but about that each person has her own personal
way of understanding things".
This statement fits very well into the multicultural structure
that frames his art, and dominates the perception of it. The "grand
narratives" and tiny personal narratives are present like two
different world orders, which to my intense relief ensures that
there is some kind of value in there - everywhere and nowhere -
or elsewhere.
Details
Ulrik Heltoft has shed what we mortals maybe put a lot
of emphasis on. He has taken off his clothes, his shoes and left
his necklace behind...well, actually it is in the projector. Although
he was fully dressed when we chatted, it's fair to suggest that
it's his own possessions that can be seen represented in two photos;
one video installation, and viewed through the lens of a light projector.
The items in Helltoft's exhibits are highly personal, for sure.
It may be said that the personal value of the items is the aesthetic
subject, this is to say that one's own relation to the things themselves
takes precedence over the impressions other people derive from them.
"Everything is already designed. The projector is designed
by the German Braun-designer Diether Rams, the turntable is B &
O, the furniture is Arne Jacobsen, and so are the shoes. They are
vintage recognizable utensils; they are what the parents have at
home. They are rather boring and bourgeoisie, and are today sold
at Bruun Rasmussen's auctions. I have chosen to work with the things
I know, with the things which are right in front of me. They are
things from my own environment. Everything is something I have at
home, daily utensils. Its my necklace, its my trousers and me on
the video - the shoes are also mine", says Ulrik Heltoft
Ulrik Heltoft Untitled (otaku) 2002
It has incidentally been a popular trend to go 'back to basics';
trying to express the corporal, the human nature, the inner self
or 'life' itself. Rather than expressing the fundamental meaning
of life Heltoft is concerned with getting the viewer to zoom in
on something else, investigate and take a chance at changing ones
focus. As part of this project, temptation is at stake in the black
& white photo Untitled (otaku) 2002, depicting a pair
of young and girly legs at a table. Actually the legs are too clean
and nice to be tempting to anyone at all, and far from framing a
supposedly mysterious, moist and darkish area in between, which
very well may be the exact point of view that Ulrik Heltoft is going
for: "Temptation is always a means to obtain peoples attention,
then they may at the same time find all the other things to look
at", he says.
It may thus be concluded that the complexity in his work of art
is to be found in the zone between the various matters inherent
in the picture. Matters that are not to be found in the obvious
place but elsewhere; in the eternal 'other places'. A close look
at Untitled (otaku) reveals more than the large scale objects:
the feminine body and the table. A small word in the book is more
predominant than other words, a number on the inside of the shoe
similarly... more details are surely to be found. If there should
be a common denominator in all this, or maybe it's just at random;
well, have a look for yourself.
To the viewer it is also just a chair, a table, two legs and the
corresponding pair of shoes, but to the viewer who 'knows' these
objects, something more is experienced. The picture contains data
which is evident to the eye of a connoisseur. Hence the title in
brackets 'otaku', which is Japanese. In its original term otaku
was used to describe the person entirely engulfed within an object,
but today it means "deep passion" or as Gustaf Gimm suggest
"implied" or "for passionate connoisseurs".
Ulrik Heltoft describes his Implied Art like this:
"I know all the details in the various parts that make up
the picture, and all the small things which link them together.
All kinds of messages are contained herein. When I look at those
shoes lots of information is available to me, which the viewer doesn't
know about. They are tiny differences; small mysteries, which are
somehow connected... or not at all."
He continues:
"The work is 'open' as you see what you prefer. It is your
own prerogative. If you want to look at female legs you can do so,
if you want to look at Arne Jacobsen chair legs, you just do it."
Playing the record
Maybe the (male) viewer - seduced to navigate between a tempting
area and the less sexy areas - is playing an important part in Ulrik
Heltoft's game. Whether the viewer is playing against Heltoft or
his work of Art, or the play is inherent in the viewer - is a question
to be asked. The title Zero Sum Gain refers to the game Zero
Sum - not as economy, but specifically a game - where strategies
are considered in relation to the opponents strategic choice:
"Zero Sum is a theory to the effect that what is won equals
exactly what is lost. Economical calculations don't take into account
the strategies of the opponent, whereas 'the player' considers what
tools to employ in relation to the tools of the opposition. To maximize
the return of my effort I have to play my strategy in relation to
yours", Ulrik Heltoft says.
As the oxymoronic title "zero sum" and "gain"
indicate, the final purpose of this play may directly relate to
attaining an amount of value between point zero and the max - metaphorically
speaking it probably relates to the question of cultural values.
On this Heltoft says:
"Value enumerated in money is boring. At the same time there
is a lot of practical economy in values. Evaluating for instance
the photo of the two turntables. A lot of thoughts are made, as
to whether the broken record player is worth less than the undamaged
one. The broken one may represent a story which is different; it
might have a tale of its own."
The dittography untitled of two record players - exactly
identical except for the fact that the latter has a crack in the
cover - can be said to deal with evaluating the founding stories
of our culture. One should think that we see a "before"
and an "after" picture here?
"Others would say it is the other way around, that the second
is "before", and the first is the "after". If
you believe that it is one and the same turntable, then it can have
been damaged. It could even be imagined that something has been
done to it, so it's actually not damaged after all; the photo could
have been manipulated.... It's just on the surface - is not something
which impairs the function. It could also be two different ones,
and one of them has sustained a slight dent."
Life from matter
Ulrik Heltoft characterizes himself as a dandy type.
Actually he is the gadabout dandy in the above video, who leans
back, hand in pocket, observes and lets "nature" come
to him, rather than being the active agent who 'does' something
with the things he sees. Representing himself as the low budget
but open-minded observer in this way, holds up a mirror in front
of the viewer, which presents us with the need to be spellbounded
by nature again, and at the same time the mirror shows us an intellectual
who views nature from a distance, which is so typical for the postmodern
metropolitan.
In actual fact there isn't really a choice made here, between nature
and spirit. Searching for 'the real' seems to be implying the mental,
which more or less combines the two. The mystery of life is thus
not solved through investigating nature, the female body or other
objects, but rather by sorting through personal impressions. As
one can see in the installation of the necklace in a light projector;
there is life in the projection. The shadow picture is not completely
material, but more like the transformation of the necklace in to
something spiritual.
I took a new look at the two turntables. Here, a sort of 'new life'
within the denture of the second player is likewise suggested. Here,
the denture is understood as a symbol of an eternal 'other place',
or the utopian nowhere, which attracts attention but never flashes.
As gallery owner Gustaf Gimm puts it with a quote from Leonard Cohen:
"There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in".
Catalogue:
52 days, Krabbesholm 2002
More books on Ulrik Heltoft:
www.krabbesholm.dk
Galleri Gustaf
Gimm
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