Please come, I am leaving |
Reaching out |
The Stairways To |
—Please come, I am leaving
2007
Plaster, clothes a.o.
237 x 160 x 160 cm
‘Please come, I am leaving’, the striding figure seems to cry out to visitors, thus welcoming them to the exhibition. Positioned on a pedestal with bright colours, the lower part of the sculpture still seems very realistic, with two legs, comfortable shoes and beige pants; from the hips up, by contrast, the sculpture is a mix of diverse materials and branches in every direction.
—Reaching out
2009
Plaster, clothes
Dimensions variable, height ca. 60 cm
His head propped contemplatively on one hand, the three-armed juggler uses his other two hands to grab the balls and cubes floating above his head. The skull on the floor beneath the sculpture, in combination with the juggler’s melancholy gesture and the pieces of a mirror on one of the balls, can be read as a memento mori, which demonstrates to us the finiteness of our own existence in the game of life.
—The Stairways To
2009
Oil on canvas
175 x 220 cm
An abstract, fictional and at the same time realistic space is presented on the canvas; a white building with several rooms appears on its top half. Hanging from the tip of the building and the centre of the picture are chains of blue and orange pennants, reminiscent of a circus tent.
The Stairways To seems to be about the imaginary and real world of the artist, between the inspiration, the work process and the presentation. The objects that can be found include an easel, a desk, books, a hand drawing pedestals, a skull, a bust and a torso—all things that belong to the props of an artist’s life. In the doorframe, barely legible, are the phrases ‘collecting your memories’ and ‘Meta Collection Center’; next to it hang abstract paintings as if in a museum; signs marked ‘Saatchi’ and ‘Tate’ lean on the wall. The only figures depicted are either unable to escape the tangled chain of pennants, are hiding anxiously behind books, or, in several cases, are falling out of the painting. The scene is clearly dominated by the many stairways, which are connected to one another and lead into the building, to hidden doors, into a hole, or into the void. They symbolize the many opportunities that could, despite great effect, lead one astray rather than to the goal, and hence they refer to the art business and to elements of a circus, such as sensation and speculation, illusion and deception.
Biography
* 1968
1993–1999 Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
Lives and works in Copenhagen
Selected solo exhibitions
—2009
Moderna Museet, Studion, Stockholm
—2008
Galleri Christina Wilson, Copenhagen
—2007
Galerie Mikael Andersen, Berlin,
J. F. Willumsens Museum, Frederikssund
Galleri Stefan Andersson, Umeå, Sweden
—2006
Galleri Christina Wilson, Copenhagen
—2004
Galerie Mikael Andersen & The Danish Cultural Institute Edinburgh, Edinburgh
—2002
DCA Gallery, New York
Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen
Selected group exhibitions
—2009
Entr'acte, Kukje Gallery, Seoul
Blomsten og bien, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
Til vægs, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen
—2008
Entre Pintura Abstracta y Figurativa. Arte Danés, Sala de Exposiciones
del Centro Cultural de Aguirre, Cuenca, Spain
H20, Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Petersburg, Russia
—2007
Contemporary Ceramics, Bendixen Contemporary Art, Copenhagen
—2006
Golddiggers, Patricia Low Contemporary, Gstaad, Switzerland
—2004
Mori Art Center; Tokyo, Japan
—2001
Take Off 20:01, Århus Kunstmuseum, Århus, Denmark
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Please come, I am leaving |
Reaching out |
The Stairways To |