Month: January 2008

Jacob Stangerup


Jacob Stangerups suite af tegninger drejer sig utvetydigt om erotik. På en gang teknisk forfinede i deres udtryk og temmelig grovkornede motivisk, refererer tegningerne både til pornografi, barokken og et kanonisk værk som Matthias Grünewalds Isenheimer alter.

Tegningerne er udført i pastel og trækul og fremstår som en art dobbelt-tegninger. Baggrunden er realistisk bearbejdet i pasteller, men brydes af en løs og mere spontan kultegning henover, som “ødelægger” det kontrollerede udtryk gennem en forløsende øjeblikkelighed.

Stangerups “brugsanvisninger” udfolder sig efter de forhåndenværende søms princip. I teorien ikke så fjernt fra Jørgen Clevins pædagogiske anvisninger på, hvad man f.eks. kan få ud af papir, saks og lim.

Produkterne er imidlertid nogle helt andre – og uegnede for mindre børn. Det gælder eksempelvis den hjemmelavede “love doll”, Stangerup giver anvisninger på i en af udstillingens mange tredelte værker, der har et fortællende anslag.

“Mode d’emploi” rummer en egen indre logik, der ikke er bundet op på realiteter, men forfølger idéer, der kunne udføres med lidt god fantasi. Motiverne reflekterer således den måde, hvorpå tanker kan (de)formere sig og give mening indeni vores egne hoveder.
Hos Stangerup får vi et kig ind i en mandlig hjerne, som fantaserer om erotik på en måde, der indirekte udstiller de mere latterlige sider af mænds begær.

Pastellerne giver motivernes heftighed et lidt barnligt, poetisk udtryk, som ved første blik dæmper den grove komik, de betjener sig af. Beskueren konfronteres imidlertid med en helt række obskøne scenarier, der leder tanken hen på pornografiske billeder, men som f.eks. også finder genklang i barokkens litteratur og kunst – med dens hang til grotesker, der bevæger sig på grænsen mellem det komiske og det voldsomme.

Værkerne vækker således modsatrettede følelser. De rummer morskab med gemene undertoner – destruktion, som kammer over i det latterlige, leg der ikke er uskyldig. Det erotiske tema udfolder på den måde nogle basale følelser og tilstande, som ikke ligger hinanden fjernt – selv om de er indbyrdes modsætninger.

Jacob Stangerup (f. 1973) bor og arbejder i København. Han har bl.a. tidligere udstillet på Sophienholm (2005). Fra 1996-2000 var han i “mesterlære” hos Jørgen Haugen Sørensen i Pietrasantra, Italien.
Martin Asbæk

"The Good with the Bad"


“The Good with the Bad”

MOGADISHNI AAR is proud to start up the new year with the group show “”The Good with the Bad”. The exhibition features a mix of new works, partly by artists represented by the gallery, partly by the two invited artists Trine Lise Nedreaas (N) and Andrew Guenther (US).
The participating artists are: Andreas Schulenburg (D/DK), Andrew Guenther (US), Benji Whalen (US), Fie Norsker (DK), Julie Nord (DK), Lise Blomberg (DK), Rasmus Bjørn (DK), Tor-Magnus Lundeby (N), Trine Lise Nedreaas (N), Will Turner (UK) and Willem Weissmann (NL).
The show will feature selected works with a plurality of media ranging from paintings, watercolors and drawings to cut-outs and sculptures. In spite of the huge range of works, the works on display do have some common traits and themes. Some of them will present an imaginative landscape and a world, that at first sight appear safe, but at a second glance reveals, that nothing is as it seems. A clear common denominator is also a focus on the naive and figurative, details, humour and a censure of todays society.
The title of the show, “The Good with the Bad”, refers to Benji Whalens sculpture. His work shows a chaotic pile of people, and he then emphasizes in a humoristic manner, how all people strive for the top with the consequences it might have, good and bad. The entertaining element is also an integrated part of a series of oil paintings by Andreas Schulenburg. Where his works, who put society under debate, earlier presented dialogues between little animal figures, the time has now come to show people interactions.
The British artistt Will Turner shows a number of refined cut-outs with the motives inspired by the Mexican festival “Day of the Dead”. On this day the Mexicans celebrate the continuation of life in a parallel world, a celebration which Turner interpret by shiny skulls and dancing women in a non definable outer space. In the painting “The Hunter” the American artist Andrew Güenther also portrays a world beyond. Here we witness a ghostlike figure moving around in a colorful and hallucinatory universe. The artist finds among others his inspiration by the Spanish painter Fransisco Goya.
Another artist, who also uses highly powerful colours, is the Dutchman Willem Weismann. He presents a big, detailed painting, in which he continues his working with themes of political and global awareness. On the contrary, the Danish artist Rasmus Bjørn is focusing on an intimate sphere. His painting shows a look into the artist´s hole, where you see works by some other artists, who the gallery represents.

The Danish artist Julie Nord participates with a watercolour, which illustrates her new preoccupation with doll´s houses. With the doll´s house as a topic, she wishes to settle with a stereotype, which includes fixed gender-roles and a petty bourgeois attitude. In her work an extreme big girl points out the illusory in the dollhouse-universe as a trivial construction. Showing an intimate space of remembrance is also characteristic of Lise Blomberg´s surrealistic universe. Her new painting shows a woman sleeping in a landscape with a purple sky.The purple colour brings the painting a both gloomy and an optimistic expression.

The Danish artist Fie Norsker contributes to the show with a drawing, which brings the observer into an obscure landscape of fantasy. Norsker is clearly preoccupied with amorphous shapes, and in this particularly work her characteristic curves seem to predict an utopian and foreboding condition. A landscape of fantasy is also typical for the the Norwegian artist Tor-Magnus Lundeby. He is especially focused on details, which brings his works a mechanical, identifiable and a compelling expression. Trine Lise Nedreaas is occupied with individuals and their unachieved life goals and aspirations. Her works are primarily videos with a documentary style, yet with a fictional element making people perform their speciality in a certain setting.

MOGADISHNI

DRØMMESYN








DRØMMESYN – Ung fotokunst + Video program: Where there is pressure, there is folk dance 11. januar – 2. februar 2008 Fernisering torsdag den 10. januar kl. 17 – 19 Velkommen til fernisering på udstillingen DRØMMESYN – Ung fotokunst. Udstillingen præsenterer værker af 30 afgangselever fra Fatamorgana Danmarks Fotografiske Billedkunstskole og giver et samlet bud på de nyeste trends indenfor fotokunsten. I forbindelse med DRØMMESYN viser Lauritz Kunsthal et program af finsk videokunst med titlen ‘Where there is pressure, there is folk dance’. Programmet vises i samarbejde med FRAME – Finnish Fund for Art Exchange. Gennem snart tyve år har Fatamorgana leveret vækstlaget af talentfulde, danske og internationale fotografer herhjemme. Skolens filosofi er det ‘ærlige billede’, altså et personligt fotografi skabt på baggrund af en original holdning til og et poetisk blik på det sete. De unge fotografer fra Fatamorgana arbejder med en række forskellige genrer indenfor fotokunsten, og på DRØMMESYN kan man opleve både portrætter, landskaber, dokumentariske skildringer af hverdagen og digitalt eksperimenterende fotografi.

Om DRØMMESYN siger kurator Mads Damsbo: ‘Fotografiet er de senere år kommet stærkt på banen som kunstgenre, også herhjemme. Den fotografiske kunst har traditionelt været kendetegnet ved en opdeling mellem det såkaldt objektive dokumentarfotografi og det mere subjektive, iscenesatte fotografi. I den unge fotokunst er dette klassiske skel ophævet til fordel for en grundlæggende personlig fortolkning og ofte manipuleret efterbearbejdning af virkeligheden. Private og offentlige rum flyder sammen i flere af udstillingens billeder, og værkernes realisme bærer ofte drømmens magiske mærke.’ I forbindelse med DRØMMESYN viser Lauritz Kunsthal videoprogrammet ‘Where there is pressure, there is folk dance’ med værker af unge kunstnere fra Finland. Programmet introducerer til den finske scene for ung videokunst og giver et indtryk af de narrative og stilistiske eksperimenter, som kendetegner finsk videokunst netop nu. Programmet giver desuden et internationalt perspektiv på de danske fotografers arbejde og et indtryk af den spændvidde i den aktuelle, tidsbaserede og fotografiske kunst. Lauritz Kunsthal udspringer som et selvstændigt univers af auktionshuset Lauritz.com.

Lauritz

"Nærbilleder" Christian Skeel


CHRISTIAN SKEEL
CUBE: Christian Vind

Galleri Tom Christoffersen er glad for at kunne præsentere Christian Skeels separatudstilling NÆRBILLEDER. Skeels nye malerier beskæftiger sig med forskellige hjørner af den omgivende verdens visualitet fra åbne vinterlandskaber, bølger og træstammer til andre kunstneres billeder og filmstills. Et fællestræk for malerierne er, at de alle bringer det genkendelige og fortrolige, oprindeligt fotograferede, rum ud til grænsen, hvor det delvist bryder sammen i visuelle paradokser.

De velkendte rum og scenarier foldes ind i kasser eller opløses i rammer, der fortsætter ind i billedet og bringer uorden i, hvad der er nært og fjernt, og hvad der er op og ned. På et andet niveau foregår der i billederne en overlejring af den fotorealistiske og næsten gennemsigtige gengivelse med mere uigennemsigtige stofligheder, som peger på maleriet som et materielt og kropsligt fænomen. Gennem billederne synliggøres et desorienterende rum, hvor alt er lidt forrykket i forhold den sædvanlige virkelighed, og genfortolket gennem et stofligt og kalejdoskopisk blik.

Alle de forvirrende rumligheder og visuelle paradokser, der arbejdes med, fører på den anden side ikke entydigt ud i kaos. Der er i billederne også en rolighed og balancefornemmelse. Det giver blikket mulighed for også at fordybe sig og måske komme tættere på de rum og oplevelser, som ligger lige udenfor eller bagved kameraets objektive blik.

Til udstillingen udgives desuden bogen Nærbilleder med Christian Skeels malerier og tekst af digter og kritiker Lars Bukdahl. Såvel bog som udstilling er støttet af Statens Kunstfond.

Christian Skeel, f. 1956, er billedkunstner og komponist. Han har sammen med Morten Skriver lavet installationer, bøger og film, senest Interferens på Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, 2005. Som komponist har han blandt andet udgivet cd?erne Metropolitan Suide (m. Martin Hall), Samlede Kompositioner (m. Morti Vizki) og Short Pieces. Forud for den aktuelle bogudgivelse kan man nævne bøgerne Rejsebog, Vej og Den usynlige dreng lavet i samarbejde med Morti Vizki.

Tom Christoffersen

EYESORE @ V1


V1 Gallery proud present:

EYESORE

A EVIL group show with:
Doug Fishbone (US), Erwin Wurm (AU), Graham Hudson (US), Hesselholdt
& Mejlvang (DK), Jakob Boeskov (DK), Jenny Holzer (US), Jes Brinch
(DK), Joachim Cossais (NO), Jocelyn Shipley (US), Joe Bradley (US),
Johannes Hinriksson (IS), Mads Lynnerup (DK), Matthew Stone (UK),
Rory Macbeth (UK), Sara Braman (US) and Shane Bradford (UK)

V1

CAUCUS


Group show CAUCUS with:

Charles Browning, Jennifer Dalton, Eric Heist, Laurie Hogin, Lou Laurita
Walter Martin, Paloma Muñoz, Laura Parnes, William Powhida, Heidi Schlatter, Michael Waugh & David Wojnarowicz

“What is a Caucus-race?” said Alice …
“Why,” said the Dodo, “the best way to explain it is to do it.” …

First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle (“the exact shape doesn’t matter,” it said), and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there.

There was no “One, two, three, and away!” but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so … the Dodo suddenly called out “The race is over!” and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, “But who has won?”
from Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

The idea of a caucus is distinctly American, which is probably why Lewis Carroll ridiculed it in Alice in Wonderland. A caucus is a group of like-minded people who come together to make a decision, and often that decision is about a decision. The US Congress has a Black Caucus, a Hispanic Caucus, even an Internet Caucus; the members of these caucuses discuss how they will vote – when a vote eventually comes. The Iowa Caucus, as well, essentially decides whom voters might like to vote for in the future – when the election occurs. It is in this spirit of deciding about decisions, and especially the deferring of decisions about leadership, that the artists in this show have formed a caucus.

Though most of the works in this show are not essentially about politics, they offer insight about the nature of choice and the lengths people go to in order to be chosen. As such, this show is timely and relevant. But more than that, the works in this show employ a dark beauty that reminds us of how power engenders its own aesthetics, an aesthetics in which a choice may seem a forgone conclusion. When that happens, the caucus is not mere procedure, but a necessary attempt to call each other out, to identify our own self-destructive desire to relinquish responsibility.

David Wojnarowicz’s iconic photograph Untitled (Falling Buffalo) typifies the attitude in this show towards deferred decisions. His gorgeous landscape presents buffaloes suicidally racing off a cliff, presumably chased by hunters. The herd mentality isn’t particularly good at devising creative solutions. Yet the crisp tonalities, the setting, and the fact that the buffaloes are merely maquettes all conspire to make the narrative seem as romantic as it is apocryphal.

By placing into a snow globe a scene of soldiers who are alternately shooting into the sky and blowing their own heads off, Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz transform a scene that should be horrifying. Physically diminutive, technically ingenious, the piece elicits a dark glee from viewers that is so strong as to make one forget simple questions like: why are the soldiers spinning out of control and choosing to end it all? Though, we may just as easily be avoiding that question because we already know the answer.

Heidi Schlatter’s light boxes also present seductive scenes, referencing the advertisements at bus stops and on subway platforms, with hip youths bearing corporate logos. The scenery may be bucolic. The logos may be prominent. The youths may be beautiful. But they are dead. By taking the form of advertisements, these pieces imply a persuasive rhetoric. But how far are we willing to be lead?

Lou Laurita avoids that question through a mandate: FOLLOW. Written large, the letters of this word form the outline of his drawing. Within those large block letters are two other things: the lyrics of the song Make it With You (also the title of Laurita’s piece) by Bread – and photographs grabbed off the internet showing people in various states of intoxication. Amid the sincerity of the pop lyrics (with their entreaty that a sexual encounter could lead to something deep and lasting), the command to follow and the drunk faces set a scene in which a locus for the right decision gets hopelessly deferred.

Michael Waugh’s drawing, The Assumption (of the Public Debt), writes out by hand, a long, rhetorically sophisticated argument: Alexander Hamilton’s report to the US congress on why the federal government should assume the debt incurred by the states during the revolution. By accepting his argument, the congress transformed the United States into a capitalist institution and global power. The image of the drawing is of George Washington being assumed into heaven, neither that nor global dominance were mentioned in the report, though a master rhetorician knows when to withhold and simplify the choices.

With Teller (from US trust), Eric Heist presents the simplest of choices: none. The minimal elegance of black glass framed by more black offers us nothing but a beautiful abyss. Seductive though it is, such transcendence falls away when one realizes that the blank panels are actually bank teller windows. The austerity of the work is non-negotiable.

Jennifer Dalton seems to offer viewers more room for negotiation. Visually spare and elegant, like Heist’s piece, her sculpture, Would You Rather be a Loser or a Pig? sets a transparent box on top of a white pedestal; the box appears to be filled with grey rubber loops. But, again like Heist’s piece, the elegance disintegrates. The rings are actually cheap rubber bracelets. Moreover, viewers are instructed to take one bracelet, choosing between one that has the word “Loser” printed on it or one with the word ”Pig.” Presenting as a choice that which is no choice at all may leave one with the desire to abstain.

In Charles Browning’s painting Fluid Allegory, even the option to abstain has consequences. Referencing 19th century American romanticism, Browning presents America (symbolized by an Indian maiden) with Europe (symbolized by a pink baby) attempting to suckle at her teat. The maiden recoils, refusing to take part. But the baby has already latched on. Self-consciously over-the-top, blood from a dead deer and milk flow across the landscape.

Laurie Hogin’s work offers another route towards abstention: drugs. In a series of paintings, Hogin presents a pharmacy of animals who are anthropomorphically twisted, vile, pitiable. Yet the cheerful colors and astounding craft of these paintings make even these horrors marketable. Painting, still the king of art world commerce, transforms the grotesque into capital. But the self-reflexivity of these paintings, with the animals locking eyes with the viewer, turns consumption itself into allegory. Consumption of drugs or paintings, it makes no difference.

The actors in Laura Parnes’s work seem to have a more proactive solution: take up arms. In a still from her video, Blood and Guts in High School, a 1980’s punk girl is up against a wall, with gun in hand. Behind the wall, a sinister, white-collared man holds a gun too. Are the characters aware of each other and the threat the other poses? Are they working together? Making a choice is never easy, but if the rubble strewn in the background of the photograph is any indication, decisions have been made.

Schroeder Romero

IS IT A FIBER SHOW?


IS IT A FIBER SHOW?

MANDY GREER
MARTHA SUE HARRIS
MISAKO INAOKA
STEVE MACDONALD
ROBIN MARGERIN
RAY MATERSON
KAREN OLSEN-DUNN
NANILEE ROBARGE
DAVID GREMARD ROMERO
REBECCA SZETO
BENJI WHALEN

BUCHEON
BENJI WHALEN