2021
Installation. Porcelæn, stains, lyssensor, højtaler,
modularsystem, forstærker. var. dim.
Fra udstillingen Above the sky, Beneath the ground
Kurator Rebekka Anker Møller
Gruppeudstilling med Anne Guro Lasmond og Linnea Gad
Sixtyeight Art Institute
Fotos: Jenny Sundby
Eng. Tekst by Rebekka Anker Møller
In the wake of the pandemic and encompassing climate changes, we face globally a state of diminishing control on both the societal and at the individual level. The modernist worldview and the capitalist systems that were developed to fit it have been proved unsustainable, triggering a new swathe of romanticized visions of nature in the Global North, both in concrete and spiritual terms. People are not only compelled to seek spaces for reflection and contemplation in the outdoors, but are also put under pressure by modern lifestyles to assume a certain performativity with nature. We have understood that nature can to some extent heal us, but the project to really embed our harmony with the natural world starts with an inward ability to dialogue with our own nature.
Therefore, what is key to understand is that WE ARE NATURE and that nature’s state is rough, as is our human condition. We have the option to learn to let go of control and ownership of the planet by dismantling anthropocentric worldviews, rather than continuing to drive them. To this end, the exhibition Biting the Nest, which is the first part of Above the Sky, Beneath the Ground, seeks to create a context for examining alternative and current structures explored by artists who are working with slow processes, deep research, re-connections, and reflectivity as methods for an artistic inwardness concerned with new dimensions of materiality and Gaia; i.e. Earth as a conscious being.
Biting the Nest shows contributions from three artists: Anna Samsøe, Anne Guro Larsmon and Linnéa Gad. Their works display a sensitivity in relation to their processing of materials and in the dialogue they create between the artworks in this group show, as well as through their different mediums and approaches.
In the case of Anna Samsøe, who makes clay sculptures combining human aspects and animal expressions with unknown forms, she creates evocative living hybrids that emphasize an uncanny experience of creation that is difficult to categorize. In Samsøe’s work, the materiality of sound is further examined in her sculptures through their play with the perception of reality and the physical environment itself.
In contrast, Anne Guru Larsmon studies the intelligence of flowers with inspiration from Charles Darwin’s drawings of plant movements executed in 1880. Darwin’s drawings also happen to be reminiscent of star maps, and through abstraction Larsmon has transformed the patterns of these into sculptures. She is concerned with materials, such as brass and steel, and also adds a series of glass works to this exhibition, which contain healing plants like Elderberry and poisonous ones as Lily of the Valley or Lady's Glove.
Linnéa Gad immerses herself in the investigation of limestone, oyster shells and lapis lazuli, driven by her fascination with materials that are different forms of one mineral - lime. Gad has on that account been searching for ways to sculpt only in lime, utilizing its diversity or its willingness to bind with different versions of itself. Her contribution in this exhibition then becomes an exercise in thinking about the life cycles of lime as material and understanding time frames beyond that of a single human.
By putting forward these different approaches to how to work consciously and ethically with materiality, this first exhibition part suggests how we can engage in the world around us in a more curious, empathetic and respectful way. To this end, this curatorial research project seeks to investigate different artistic approaches to materiality, performativity, and contemporary societal structures by broadening the perspective on engagement and re-connection. Hoping with the best of intentions that this will help cultivate new approaches for collective behaviour, between human and non-human entities, and through a phenomenological and non-hierarchical approach.
2021
Installation. Porcelæn, stains, lyssensor, højtaler,
modularsystem, forstærker. var. dim.
Fra udstillingen Above the sky, Beneath the ground
Kurator Rebekka Anker Møller
Gruppeudstilling med Anne Guro Lasmond og Linnea Gad
Sixtyeight Art Institute
Fotos: Jenny Sundby
Eng. Tekst by Rebekka Anker Møller
In the wake of the pandemic and encompassing climate changes, we face globally a state of diminishing control on both the societal and at the individual level. The modernist worldview and the capitalist systems that were developed to fit it have been proved unsustainable, triggering a new swathe of romanticized visions of nature in the Global North, both in concrete and spiritual terms. People are not only compelled to seek spaces for reflection and contemplation in the outdoors, but are also put under pressure by modern lifestyles to assume a certain performativity with nature. We have understood that nature can to some extent heal us, but the project to really embed our harmony with the natural world starts with an inward ability to dialogue with our own nature.
Therefore, what is key to understand is that WE ARE NATURE and that nature’s state is rough, as is our human condition. We have the option to learn to let go of control and ownership of the planet by dismantling anthropocentric worldviews, rather than continuing to drive them. To this end, the exhibition Biting the Nest, which is the first part of Above the Sky, Beneath the Ground, seeks to create a context for examining alternative and current structures explored by artists who are working with slow processes, deep research, re-connections, and reflectivity as methods for an artistic inwardness concerned with new dimensions of materiality and Gaia; i.e. Earth as a conscious being.
Biting the Nest shows contributions from three artists: Anna Samsøe, Anne Guro Larsmon and Linnéa Gad. Their works display a sensitivity in relation to their processing of materials and in the dialogue they create between the artworks in this group show, as well as through their different mediums and approaches.
In the case of Anna Samsøe, who makes clay sculptures combining human aspects and animal expressions with unknown forms, she creates evocative living hybrids that emphasize an uncanny experience of creation that is difficult to categorize. In Samsøe’s work, the materiality of sound is further examined in her sculptures through their play with the perception of reality and the physical environment itself.
In contrast, Anne Guru Larsmon studies the intelligence of flowers with inspiration from Charles Darwin’s drawings of plant movements executed in 1880. Darwin’s drawings also happen to be reminiscent of star maps, and through abstraction Larsmon has transformed the patterns of these into sculptures. She is concerned with materials, such as brass and steel, and also adds a series of glass works to this exhibition, which contain healing plants like Elderberry and poisonous ones as Lily of the Valley or Lady's Glove.
Linnéa Gad immerses herself in the investigation of limestone, oyster shells and lapis lazuli, driven by her fascination with materials that are different forms of one mineral - lime. Gad has on that account been searching for ways to sculpt only in lime, utilizing its diversity or its willingness to bind with different versions of itself. Her contribution in this exhibition then becomes an exercise in thinking about the life cycles of lime as material and understanding time frames beyond that of a single human.
By putting forward these different approaches to how to work consciously and ethically with materiality, this first exhibition part suggests how we can engage in the world around us in a more curious, empathetic and respectful way. To this end, this curatorial research project seeks to investigate different artistic approaches to materiality, performativity, and contemporary societal structures by broadening the perspective on engagement and re-connection. Hoping with the best of intentions that this will help cultivate new approaches for collective behaviour, between human and non-human entities, and through a phenomenological and non-hierarchical approach.
