Satan Mirrors |
Trapeez |
Spectacle Tent |
Orgone Receptor |
—Satan Mirrors
2003
Mirrors, wood, light bulbs
2 mirrors, each: 230 x 55 x 15 cm
—Trapeez
2003
Steel, firecrackers
200 x 120 x 30 cm
—Spectacle Tent
2005
Cotton, wood
360 x 440 x 440 cm
—Orgone Receptor
2009
Wood, metal
96 x 190 x 90 cm
The yellow-and-black-striped tent, the golden trapeze and the diamond-shaped mirrors lined with colourful lamps are stage props we recognize from the class circus equipment storeroom. They are elements from Henrik Plenge Jakobsen’s total work of art, the Circus Pentium and Circus Portikus, complex installations in which the artist combines sculpture, video and performance. He deliberately employs forms, colours and symbols typical of the circus in order to create a surreal world of illusions and spectacles that can evoke joy and amazement but also shivers in the viewers. They are aware at every moment that the situation can suddenly turn from comedy to tragedy, from sensation to catastrophe, from seduction to repulsion. The tent promises a spectacle, and yet there is no entrance. The black mirrors twinkle with colours, yet their form makes the faces reflected in them appear in a diabolic light. The trapeze looks breathtaking, yet it is too fragile to support an artiste.
The circus can be understood as a precursor and the epitome of the modern entertainment industry. Its effect on today’s society and the resulting hunger for experiences are things Henrik Plenge Jakobsen questions critically in his installations.
His Orgone Receptor takes up this same theme on a different level, addressing the small degree of separation between esotericism, superstition and charlatanism. Can the small wooden box with a metal lid and a black hole inside, placed on jetsam in the shape of antlers, actually charge the atmosphere with energy or is it just another variation on taking our desire for mysticism literally?
Biography
* 1967 in Copenhagen
Lives and works in Copenhagen
Selected solo exhibitions
—2009
Gallerie Patricia Dorfmann, Paris
The Suburban, Oak Park, Chicago
—2008
Autonomus Acts, Glockengasse 22, Vienna
—2007
FRAC Pays de la Loire, Carquefou
—2005
South London Gallery, London
The National Gallery of Fine Arts, Copenhagen
—2003
Portikus, Frankfurt am Main
Galleria Maze, Torino
Michael Hall, Vienna
Selected group exhibitions
—2009
N'Importe quoi, Musée D'art Contemporain, Lyon
—2008
Reality Check, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
Château de Tokyo / Palais de Fontainebleau
—2007
New Economy, Artist Space, New York
Gaze.Space.Desire, Den frie udstillingsbygning, Copenhagen
The Freak Show, Musee d'Art Contemporain, Lyon
—2006
Sudden Impact, Le Plateau, FRAC Ile-de-France, Paris
Bühne des lebens – Rhetorik des gefühls, Museum Lehnbachhaus, Munich
Populism, Stedjeliik Museum, Amsterdam
—2003
Hardcore, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
The Straight or the Crooked Way, Royal College of Art, London
At Your Own Risk, Kunsthalle Schirn, Frankfurt
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Satan Mirrors |
Trapeez |
Spectacle Tent |
Orgone Receptor |