© Lise Blomberg Naturally! Fie Norsker, Lise Blomberg, Benny Dröscher, Simon Keenleyside, Krista Rosenkilde, Anne Torpe, Andreas Schulenburg, Randi & Katrine, Astrid Kruse Jensen, Lykke Andersen, Jakob Jensen, Axel Antas, Samuel St. Leger, Dalziel & Scullion, Sandra Kantanen, Jørn Zoëga Olesen, Michael Samuels With the exhibition "Naturally!" MOGADISHNI this summer invites nature and landscape into the gallery space. By presenting a number of national and international artists who in different ways focus on nature and landscape this exhibition emphasizes the renewed interest in both the aesthetic and recreational landscape sites surrounding us and in the wild and sublime nature. The exhibition will include painting, video, ceramics and photographs as well as installation pieces. Nature and landscape have for centuries been a great source of inspiration for the visual arts. In the grand sceneries, the artists found a source for the portrayal of inner landscapes and the expression of sentiments. By the turn of the millennium several tendencies and categories within the landscape-genre can be observed existing parallel to one another: from the documentary to the synthetic or from the constructed to the humoristic, the caricature and "naïve" - not to mention "the mental landscape". The interest in nature and landscape set the stage for a discussion as to whether these phenomena still exist. Has the landscape become a cultivated park controlled by humans? And is the predominant search for nature perhaps a reflection of a longing for something lost? "Naturally!" is not to be regarded as an attempt to romanticise the lost but rather as a journey through different approaches and states connected to nature and landscape. The Danish duo Randi & Katrine has put a segment of a green "baroque-hedge" into a showcase by means of which the landscape becomes an artificial scenery. In Michael Samuels' "sea-scape" nature becomes an idealised, calm and unattainably paradise while Samuel St. Leger portrays nature and landscape as an emotional, suspense-filled site. In paintings by Simon Keenleyside and Fie Norsker the viewer encounters the psychedelic nature in strong colours while nature becomes an illustration of a psychological space in the drawings by Lise Blomberg. Benny Dröscher gives nature a dream-like and lyrical twist in his drawings where floating birch trunks mix with glimpses into cosmos. Contemporary art's use of nature and landscape as a basis for the construction of a playful universe is e.g. seen in the ceramic works by Andreas Schulenburg - works that portray the icons of nature in a humorous, informal, almost naïve way. The fantasy-genre appears in the paintings by Anne Torpe and Krista Rosenkilde, who both let nature undergo imaginative changes, while Axel Antas shows nature as a meditative and ethereal phenomenon. A part of the exhibition is devoted to photography and video - media that in recent years to a considerable extent have pointed the viewfinder towards nature and "the romantic". We are proud to present a number of works which - in their depiction of nature and landscape - range from the realistic represented by Jørn Zoëga Olesen, via the arranged represented by Jakob Jensen, to the enchanted landscape by Astrid Kruse Jensen in whose poetic, almost imaginary, photographs the landscape act as form. The dark landscape is transformed into an abstraction in which the hyper-natural "collapses" and becomes a kind of dramatically staged fiction. The black trees by Sandra Kantanen refer to traditional Chinese painting but essentially appear as an inner, mythical landscape created by light. The duo Dalziel & Scullion examines the complex relationship that mankind has with the "natural" world due to the process of urbanization. In their video-work they discuss our alienation from nature and what impact this will have upon our future survival. In Lykke Andersen's works nature and landscape are seen in a museum context and because of their appearance as illusory sceneries these phenomena seem almost absent. The exhibition "Naturally!" shows nature and landscape alive and well, and the different approaches to these phenomena makes it a multi-faceted "nature-walk". Landscape and nature are no longer just reserved for painting and drawing - now they can also be seen burnt in clay, captured in photographs and enclosed in a showcase. The exhibition is curated by Julie Damgaard (assistant) and Helle Ryberg (assistant) in collaboration with Christian Chapelle. Exhibition: June 1 - July 31, 2006 Gallery hours: Tues-Fri 11am - 4pm, Sat 12am - 3pm MOGADISHNI Carl Jacobsens Vej 16, entrance 6, floor 3 DK-2500 Valby Telephone +45 32 54 35 35 Fax +45 32 54 35 45 Email mail@mogadishni.com www.mogadishni.com |
|
 |
