That and beyond
Works by Anne-Sofie Overgaard, Christian Bang Jensen and Krista Rosenkilde.
These three fascinating Danish artists, working in three different media – weaving, sculpture and painting – chose to tackle the theme of ‘the supernatural’ – each in their own distinctive way. Rather than any concerted attempt to reflect each other’s approach in their works, it is the theme of the exhibition that unites them. As Krista Rosenkilde puts it: “When it comes to Anne-Sofie’s and Christian’s works, my thoughts have mainly turned to how my works will co-exist with theirs. What I’m looking forward to is the random connections that will inevitably emerge, and I am confident that our response to the common theme will lead to something harmonious, and make sense.”
Recent visitors to the Curated by Jens Peter-Brask exhibition at Albert Contemporary will have experienced Anne-Sofie Overgaard’s stunning, dramatic weavings. They can look forward to some equally mesmerising works this time round. “I am inspired by outer space,” says the artist. “I am always looking at NASA pages, using a lot of their images as inspiration. That is just an ongoing thing. And now there are all these landscape images from Mars which I also collect and use.” In January 2022, she worked for 6 weeks in a studio at Design School Kolding, using their digital weaving machine, feeding into it images of planets from the NASA website and her own camera. The result was 10 metres of woven material, which she them cut up into a series of around 8 ‘planets’, some of which will hang from the ceiling of the gallery.
This exhibition is a perfect resting place – or planet – for Christian Bang Jensen’s sculptures. Lined up together, his sinister predominantly bronze (sometimes stoneware) beings might well be mistaken for the dramatis personae of a fantasy film set in some disturbing, nightmarish after world. Some possess a pared-back, almost totemic quality, redolent of the pagan figurines of ancient Cycladic art – a horned therianthrope (half human, half beast) with stumps for hands and feet – a wall-mounted, moon-headed figure, seemingly formed, or maybe trapped by its own turd-like entrails. Others have a narrative element about them – another ‘moon head’ character in a humble posture of worship – a gnome, clawing its way through a forest or perhaps attempting to free itself from its own forest body. Christian Bang’s sculptural universe is mythical, suggestive, disturbing, evoking other-worldly, subconscious elements we might prefer to ignore.
Influenced by abstract art, Suprematism and the Bauhaus, the artist Krista Rosenkilde always blurs the boundary between art and design. She deconstructs human figures and real-life objects, morphing them into colourful, powerfully decorative structures of interlocking planes, lines and sections. For this exhibition, she presents a number of paintings and linocuts, which tackle the theme of death. All the paintings are new, while she has printed some previous linocuts in new colours. Her largest work in the exhibition (200 x 150 cm) features the Grim Reaper. The ominous figure is discernible on horseback, but partly diffused into the artist’s characteristic lines and patterns, thereby becoming more ambiguous. The ornamental effect takes precedence over motif or narrative, and her choice of bright pastel colours is a provocative counterpart to the gravity and gloominess of the subject.
Anne-Sofie Overgaard (b. 1990) studied at the Jutland Art Academy (Aarhus) and the Bergen Academy of Art and Design. She has exhibited extensively in galleries in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Berlin. Her work figures in the collections of Aarhus Municipality, Business Academy MidtVest and CCA Andratx (Mallorca), and she was also commissioned to produce four large-scale, digitally-woven tapestries for Herning Healthcare College in Holstebro.
Christian Bang Jensen (b. 1983) studied at the Funen Art Academy and Malmø Art Academy, Lund University after completing his studies in ethnography and social anthropology at Aarhus University. His work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions in Denmark, the UK, Sweden, Greece and Norway, and in a number of solo exhibitions in Denmark and Sweden.
Krista Rosenkilde (b. 1982) studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Her work, which uses a wide range of material and media, featured in numerous solo and group shows throughout Denmark. She has also collaborated with designers - most recently with Fritz Hansen Furniture - creating a special edition of Arne Jacobsen’s Ant Chair. Her work also figures in collections, including Politikens Hus, Københavns Billedkunstudvalg and the Danish Art Foundation