click here for Citadel magazine
Wonderland on who they believe in in 2009;-) thanks, I am deeply honoured by your support;-)
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Cover of Danish Paper, Børsen. "Breakthrough 2009"
Borsen is the stock exchange news paper in DK. The article is about who, some Danish Art people think will break through in 2009.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Tom Trevatt on The Ruins of The Future, Standpoint, London.
Tom Trevatt, is a London-based curator, who also co-runs the non-profit exhibitionspace "Freight+Hold".
Mie Olise Kjaegaard
The Ruins of the Future, with Mary Mattingly
Standpoint Gallery, October 24 – November 22 2008
Kjærgaard’s reclaimed timber plank construction leads mutely into the gallery. Elegant yet nebulous, the wooden alleyway describes an opening and a long deep recess rather than a pathway. Lodged in the back of the recess is the disproportionately large lift, still occasionally in use, utilised by Kjærgaard to house the small projection of her recent film work, Into The Pyramid (2008). Beyond the lift is a further construction out of the same timber planks, similarly horizontally slatted and screwed together with small black screws. Although neat and well made the whole structure is haphazard and precarious, threatening to fall and engulf you at any moment. At the back of the gallery the wooden slats give way to an amorphous tangle of material, rope, wooden fruit boxes, the legs of a strange figure, a badly made kite or small hang-glider model all sat atop a rusty bike. This element of Kjærgaard’s installation is in collaboration with the other artist in the show, Mary Mattingly, and engages in a very different register than her previous installations. Although seemingly chaotic and ad hoc, on closer inspection, Kjærgaard’s structures belie her architectural training. Carefully poised on the edge of collapse they suggest a hasty addition, the provisional and anxious constructions of humans on the brink of extinction, of fleeing tribes or dilettante tree house builders. However, despite not being fixed into the floor or ceiling at any point, these planks have been sawn specifically for this space and as such are wedged firmly and screwed securely to each other, producing a surprising rigidity. Accompanying the installation are four large scale paintings depicting further imagined wooden structures, a grand piano, a typewriter and one of her ongoing obsessions, a boat.
Arguably, the key to Kjærgaard’s practice lies in a conjunction between the sea and the land, the paintings of boats depict them left perched on high ground at low tide, and her wooden platforms and houses are shown balanced on precarious stilts or in the crooks of branches high in the canopy. In fact, one could go so far as to suggest that the sea and land in her work are conjoined also in their absences. Boats without water and houses without foundations suggest a fiercely fluctuating tide, the occupants of both caught short or wise enough to build high above land. But there is another element at play. Kjærgaard parasitically intervenes to create sculptural structures, employing short term and cheap constructions that go up and come down fast, resting in the space between architecture and object. Like a Scandinavian take on the favelas they are human in their materials yet aspire to gestalt greatness. Forever falling in on themselves yet simultaneously holding off the moment of final ruination, these architectural interventions develop temporally sensitive apocalyptic fantasies. Oscillating between utopian dreams and end of the world nightmares, the structure threatens to both thrust upwards of its own accord and collapse without warning.
The three minute long film, Into the Pyramid, is an edited series of still images of the abandoned Russian city on the edge of the arctic circle, Pyramiden. Becoming much more than a research trip, Kjærgaard’s exploration of this desolate ex-mining town on the Svalbard archipelago in Norway is a dispassionate yet engaged retrieval of visual language that feeds into her continued project. Boasting the most northerly bust of Lenin, Pyramiden was evacuated in 1998 by its Russian owners Arctikugol Trust because it was too expensive to maintain. Despite Pyramiden’s sad history, the film engages less in nostalgia than an aesthetic endeavour. Indeed one of Kjærgaard’s self-imposed rules is ‘no people’, suggesting an abandoned mining facility as the ideal location for the film. In fact, ruin as by product of lack of human involvement doesn’t seem to be Kjærgaard’s project at all, instead, she re-imagines the ruin as a productive or creative act. There is a play here between her intervention into ruin and her intervention as ruin. Take the title of the exhibition, Ruins of the Future. Ostensibly this suggests dismay at the failed utopian modernist dream. However, I would argue that this title names two distinct possibilities. Both the possibility of the ruination of existing buildings in future time and the ruins of the idea of the future. Or, the ruining of the future. But, to be clear, this work isn’t the representation of ruin as such, but what we could call adapted-ruin. Figured as personal dwellings amassing like favelas at the edges of state control, the structures are both utopian and at the same time antagonistic, a constant reminder of human endeavour in the face of government abandonment. Could one then read Kjærgaard’s work critically? As a strongly democratic or anarchist critique of statist visions of utopia? One could situate this work within the structure of an anti-regeneration argument. The adapted-ruin as an individually productive site of egalitarian resistance to dominant forces. Yet I am uneasy doing this. The strength of Kjærgaard’s work is that it rests only lightly and temporarily, constantly moving on, being constructed and destroyed at regular intervals, to be reduced again to its constituent parts. This throws the work into sharp focus. As architecture it is only temporary, and not nearly large enough or sturdy enough to house a family, yet as object it is too imposing and active in a way. It rests, then, between the two, like the conjunction of sea and land, Kjærgaard’s work acts doubly, at the edge of abandoned civilisation and at the height of utopian dreams.
Mie Olise Kjaegaard
The Ruins of the Future, with Mary Mattingly
Standpoint Gallery, October 24 – November 22 2008
Kjærgaard’s reclaimed timber plank construction leads mutely into the gallery. Elegant yet nebulous, the wooden alleyway describes an opening and a long deep recess rather than a pathway. Lodged in the back of the recess is the disproportionately large lift, still occasionally in use, utilised by Kjærgaard to house the small projection of her recent film work, Into The Pyramid (2008). Beyond the lift is a further construction out of the same timber planks, similarly horizontally slatted and screwed together with small black screws. Although neat and well made the whole structure is haphazard and precarious, threatening to fall and engulf you at any moment. At the back of the gallery the wooden slats give way to an amorphous tangle of material, rope, wooden fruit boxes, the legs of a strange figure, a badly made kite or small hang-glider model all sat atop a rusty bike. This element of Kjærgaard’s installation is in collaboration with the other artist in the show, Mary Mattingly, and engages in a very different register than her previous installations. Although seemingly chaotic and ad hoc, on closer inspection, Kjærgaard’s structures belie her architectural training. Carefully poised on the edge of collapse they suggest a hasty addition, the provisional and anxious constructions of humans on the brink of extinction, of fleeing tribes or dilettante tree house builders. However, despite not being fixed into the floor or ceiling at any point, these planks have been sawn specifically for this space and as such are wedged firmly and screwed securely to each other, producing a surprising rigidity. Accompanying the installation are four large scale paintings depicting further imagined wooden structures, a grand piano, a typewriter and one of her ongoing obsessions, a boat.
Arguably, the key to Kjærgaard’s practice lies in a conjunction between the sea and the land, the paintings of boats depict them left perched on high ground at low tide, and her wooden platforms and houses are shown balanced on precarious stilts or in the crooks of branches high in the canopy. In fact, one could go so far as to suggest that the sea and land in her work are conjoined also in their absences. Boats without water and houses without foundations suggest a fiercely fluctuating tide, the occupants of both caught short or wise enough to build high above land. But there is another element at play. Kjærgaard parasitically intervenes to create sculptural structures, employing short term and cheap constructions that go up and come down fast, resting in the space between architecture and object. Like a Scandinavian take on the favelas they are human in their materials yet aspire to gestalt greatness. Forever falling in on themselves yet simultaneously holding off the moment of final ruination, these architectural interventions develop temporally sensitive apocalyptic fantasies. Oscillating between utopian dreams and end of the world nightmares, the structure threatens to both thrust upwards of its own accord and collapse without warning.
The three minute long film, Into the Pyramid, is an edited series of still images of the abandoned Russian city on the edge of the arctic circle, Pyramiden. Becoming much more than a research trip, Kjærgaard’s exploration of this desolate ex-mining town on the Svalbard archipelago in Norway is a dispassionate yet engaged retrieval of visual language that feeds into her continued project. Boasting the most northerly bust of Lenin, Pyramiden was evacuated in 1998 by its Russian owners Arctikugol Trust because it was too expensive to maintain. Despite Pyramiden’s sad history, the film engages less in nostalgia than an aesthetic endeavour. Indeed one of Kjærgaard’s self-imposed rules is ‘no people’, suggesting an abandoned mining facility as the ideal location for the film. In fact, ruin as by product of lack of human involvement doesn’t seem to be Kjærgaard’s project at all, instead, she re-imagines the ruin as a productive or creative act. There is a play here between her intervention into ruin and her intervention as ruin. Take the title of the exhibition, Ruins of the Future. Ostensibly this suggests dismay at the failed utopian modernist dream. However, I would argue that this title names two distinct possibilities. Both the possibility of the ruination of existing buildings in future time and the ruins of the idea of the future. Or, the ruining of the future. But, to be clear, this work isn’t the representation of ruin as such, but what we could call adapted-ruin. Figured as personal dwellings amassing like favelas at the edges of state control, the structures are both utopian and at the same time antagonistic, a constant reminder of human endeavour in the face of government abandonment. Could one then read Kjærgaard’s work critically? As a strongly democratic or anarchist critique of statist visions of utopia? One could situate this work within the structure of an anti-regeneration argument. The adapted-ruin as an individually productive site of egalitarian resistance to dominant forces. Yet I am uneasy doing this. The strength of Kjærgaard’s work is that it rests only lightly and temporarily, constantly moving on, being constructed and destroyed at regular intervals, to be reduced again to its constituent parts. This throws the work into sharp focus. As architecture it is only temporary, and not nearly large enough or sturdy enough to house a family, yet as object it is too imposing and active in a way. It rests, then, between the two, like the conjunction of sea and land, Kjærgaard’s work acts doubly, at the edge of abandoned civilisation and at the height of utopian dreams.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Artist of the year 2008 - Rockwool Foundation.
Today I am accepting the Artist of The Year- award at Rockwool Foundation. There will be an award ceremony at Rockwool HQ in Denmark. I am very happy that they chose me, and look forward to celebrate at Alberto K.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
ART WORLD MAGAZINE - no 7 in top 10 in UK;-)
Art World Magazine writes about our show at Standpoint. It seems that we are number 7 at the top 10 UK exhibitions this month! Please go see it if you are in London, - and you are interested;-) until oct 22.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Danish Art Council
Returning from London, I found the answer on my application for my videoproject, 35.000,- from the Danish Arts Council. I am thankful and full of relief, ´cos I allready went and spent all the money;-)
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
OPENING SHOT IN BLUEPRINT MAGAZINE.
When I studied Architecture I often read Blueprint mag at the libary. I thought it was pretty cool.
Opening Shot of Blueprint Magazine, UK. Oct. 2008. "Ruins of the Future", w. Mary Mattingly at Standpoint Gallery, London, UK.
Opening Shot of Blueprint Magazine, UK. Oct. 2008. "Ruins of the Future", w. Mary Mattingly at Standpoint Gallery, London, UK.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
NIELS WESSEL BAGGE FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS
Niels Bagge(1908-1990) was a great Danish Collector, who collected Art as well Ancient Ceramic work, he travelled the world and lived in London, Los Angeles - Hollywood, a modern man, engaged in the Performing Arts. In his Art Collection was works from Robert Rauschenberg, Rafael Canogar, Andy Warhol, Edward Kienholtz and Rinaldo Paluzzi. He generously donated his impressive Collection to Aarhus Museum of Art in Denmark, and after his death in 1990, the Niels Wessel Bagge Foundation was established: each year 4 artists are awarded the grant of 100.000 dkr.
I am very thankful and happy to accept one of the 2008 grants, which I will spend on my new projects in Iceland and Tokyo;-)
- Edward Kienholz - Sawdy.
Previously Michael Kvium, Lise Malinovsky, Christian Lemmerz, Tal R, Kaspar Bonnen, Malene Landgren are among the receivers of the Grant.
I am very thankful and happy to accept one of the 2008 grants, which I will spend on my new projects in Iceland and Tokyo;-)
- Edward Kienholz - Sawdy.Previously Michael Kvium, Lise Malinovsky, Christian Lemmerz, Tal R, Kaspar Bonnen, Malene Landgren are among the receivers of the Grant.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
LIVERPOOL BIENNALE - John Moores 25th Painting Prize
I went to Liverpool for the opening of John Moores 25th, to have dinner with the other artists and the judges. It was very inspiring to see all the work and meet the great people.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
MY TRIP TO THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
I went to The Pyramid City in August 2008, second time. This time I brought along Film Photographer Simon Ladefoged, and we shot some film, and I made a performance at the empty square in front of the Lenin Statue. Playing aloud a piece of music composed by genious Goodiepal(from part one of my pyramid Project, exhibited at the 10th Istanbul Biennale) live on-site for the seaguls and possible polarbears.
Film will be edited, one with music composed by brilliant pianist, Nikolaj Hess; and 2. part of the project will be exhibited at STANDPOINT Gallery, London. An exhibition curated by Fiona MacDonald, and alongside my collegue, Photographer, Mary Mattingly.
YOUKOBO ARTIST RESIDENCY TOKYO
Summer 2009 for 3 months I am going to TOKYO to occupy a live and work space at the Youkobo Residency. I am looking forward to study japanese architectural constructions, to paint, film, write and draw;-)) in my little japanese style new home...
Friday, July 25, 2008
Shortlisted for the 25th JOHN MOORES PAINTING PRIZE.
MIE OLISE KJÆRGAARD shortlisted for the John Moores Painting Prize in Liverpool.
Juried by a.o. Jake and Dinos Chapman John Moores Painting Prize is the biggest and most influential Painting competition in the UK. 40 people of 3500 applicants got through to the exhibition that opens 20. september at Liverpool Museums´ Walker Art Centre.
180x170 cm "watchtower with a green stick".
Berlin Residency from the JP Foundation.
Mie Olise Kjærgaard receives the JP residency in may 2009.
Live-work Space in one of Europes greatest art centres.
Mie Olise will study the History and Art of Berlin, and draw a little.
NES Residency at ICELAND.
Mie Olise Kjærgaard has been rewarded the NES Residency at Iceland. The residency will take place february-march 2009. It is situated at the seaside at a fish plant! Kjærgaard will be reading, writing, painting and filming at the residency.
Monday, July 21, 2008
solo show: PENETRATING PORES OF CONSTRUCTION at BARBARA DAVIS GALLERY, Houston, TX
Solo Exhibition at Barbara Davis Gallery july 12 - august 9.
painting and installation.
Monday, June 30, 2008
ISCP residency New York
I have been accepted to the ISCP - International Studio and Curatorial Programme in New York. The ISCP is one of the greatest opportunies for International artists, curators and guest critics to meet and develop their work in New York, discuss work and thoughts. I will be there for 9 months from late 2009.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
First US solo exhibition at BARBARA DAVIS GALLERY.
July 12 I am opening my first solo show in the US.
www.barbaradavisgallery.com
Danish Art Council 2008 Grant
I received the Danish Art Council´s 2008 Grant, 100.000 DKR - I will spend the money on this US trip, the Standpoint show and on my trip to the arctic circle, I am going there in internal sunshine in August, to record video and photograph what can´t be made-up in painting.