Slim & Krystal
Æg & Aske

Artists
Rose Eken
Camilla Reyman
Sidse Carstens

Opening  
Friday, May 6th 2022 from 5 - 8 pm

Other participants
Henriette Sennenvaldt
Nils Gröndahl

Text
Astrid Wang

More information
www.roseeken.dk
www.sidsecarstens.com
www.henriettesennenvaldt.com

Links
Facebook
Idoart

Supported by
Statens Kunstfond, Augustinus Fonden, Beckett-fonden, Ny Carlsbergfondet, Det Obelske Familiefond, William Demant Fonden & Vesterbro Lokaludvalg

            EN
In Ursula K. Le Guin’s now seminal essay The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction (1988), we learn, by way of anthropologist Elizabeth Fisher, that the earliest tool of our ancient, indeed mostly pescatarian, hominid ancestors was, contrary to common belief, not the sharp tool, useable as a weapon; in fact not the phallic-shaped, clubs, spears and arrows wielded by Herculean cavemen against wild beasts so beloved by popular imagination. Prior to such feats another more primordial technology was in place first: the carrier bag - a basket to tote the day’s gatherings, a simple sling to carry an infant, a carved bowl to offer water to a stranger. The sheath predates the sword, but prosaic things rarely make heroic stories if they make it into any at all, as Le Guin notes, and she was first and foremost storyteller, worldbuilder and artist. The carrier bag theory of fiction may be built upon a scientific theory, but more importantly, it is concerned with aesthetics. It asks us to consider a poetics of minutiae; the rhizomatic, knotted, amorphous, non-linear, domestic, slow, small, soft, and half-forgotten - a poetics of the feminine. 

We may wonder if any such attempt at a feminine poetics is even possible within a patriarchal, phallogocentric order, or rather to be precise, we may ask if a feminized aesthetic can function as a locus of feminist resistance under said paradigm. Æg & Aske (Egg & Ash) unites three women artists, working together with the concept Slim & Krystal (Slime & Crystal) - an ongoing multi-artist project with a changing line-up, incorporating visuals, sound, installation, and performance. Slim & Krystal situates itself within an eco-critical, new-materialist, and post-Anthropocene discourse, however, far from monolithic, it allows Carstens, Eken and Reyman to expand on the subject matters, processes, and materials that are pertinent, when one attempts to make art on a damaged planet. In very different ways, they each search for their own carrier bags of fiction and storytelling.

Sidse Carstens looks to new media, investigating digital intimacy and sexual embodiment through the phenomenon of ASMR. In present exhibition, the artist presents a total environment with a two-channel video, accompanied by an audio-track of her patiently stirring a soup. In Carstens’ pastel-colored universe, manicured hands lovingly fondle raw eggs and vaseline, while bits of fabric, eggshells, crystals and madder are ritualistically preserved in glass jars in a strange archive. Le Guin explains that the carrier bag acts as a “chronometer telling the time on another world”, and indeed, Carstens’ work denaturalizes the trivial temporalities of the domestic and historic. Cyberculture, girlish fetishes, and ancient kitchen spells intermingle, expressed in the languid rhythm of ASMR. Foodstuffs are handled, but the dish is never completed. In a world that mass commodifies femininity, while still refusing to properly compensate domestic work, Carstens invites us to discover the magic in non-productivity. 

The earliest pottery documented is some 20.000 years old, found in the south of China. Prehistoric gatherers would have recognized Rose Eken’s earthen- and stoneware vessels, and perhaps even her intricate glazes depicting plants used in witchcraft, such as belladonna, henbane and thorn apple. While acclaimed for her ability to render objects from her surroundings in clay, Eken’s recent work engages with the foundation of her preferred medium: creating containers. Yet the relationship between form and content, inside and outside, is never straightforward. Spikey pink Thorn Apple Vases resemble bodies turned inside out, and a series of phallic-shaped, ceramic sex toys accompany the larger vessels. Indeed, both sheath and sword are present, but in Eken’s universe, the phalluses have somewhat lost their masculine potency. Rather they appear as small baubles of pleasure, easily carried in a handbag. A standout work, a naturalistic bust of Emma Goldman observes the whole scene. Remembered as a woman who loved art, music, and sex, and saw no reason for a revolutionary to deprive themselves of beautiful things, she would certainly approve of Eken’s message of empowerment through pleasure and joy. 

Deeply concerned with the present state of the planet, Camilla Reyman engages with sustainable and reclaimed materials, particularly textiles. For the Slim & Krystal project, she presents a series of patchwork paintings, sewn together from her own discarded canvases, and dyed with dark pigments made from burnt animal bones. For Reyman, this process of using and reusing her own materials represents a dialogue between her artistic agency and that of the materials. The result is minimal, organic works that nevertheless, processually and conceptually, radically depart from historical Minimalism. What you see is not what you see, to paraphrase Carl Andre. Rather, the artist’s approach resonates with Tantric practices, where our material reality, and the metaphysical- and spiritual realm are both equally manifested in sacred geometric shapes. “You meditate while you paint, and use the painting to meditate on, when it is finished”, Reyman remarks, suggesting fluidity between artist and viewer, between process and product. Like portals to an alien world, her work beckons us to the unknown, to reflect on alternative ways to sense, understand and think with- and about art. 

How does one go about making art on a damaged planet, and how does one practice storytelling in the feminist mode? For Carstens, Eken and Reyman, these two questions are intimately related. No simple answers are provided, but we sense that their approach emphasizes eclecticism, re-enchantment, speculation, and a critical, yet hopeful investigation of our narratives of the past and the future. Here, a feminine- and feminist poetics means to stay in the process and “stay with the trouble”, to paraphrase Donna Haraway, and to consider our present crisis, not as the end of the world as we know it, but rather a journey of perpetual transformation.

Sidse Carstens (she/her, b. 1971, Aarhus) holds an MFA in Film Animation from the National Film School of Denmark. She has exhibited in- and outside of Denmark, including Charlottenborg Kunsthal, Copenhagen, DK, SMK The National Gallery of Denmark, Palais de Tokyo and Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR. 

Rose Eken (she/her, b. 1976, Copenhagen) holds an MA from Royal College of Art London (2003). She has received international acclaim for the solo exhibition Remain in The Light, The Hole, NY, US. Her exhibition Tableau, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, DK has been permanently acquired by ARoS and is on view in the museum. Eken is represented by V1 Gallery and Charlotte Fogh Gallery, Aarhus, DK. 

Camilla Reyman (she/her, b. 1981, Aalborg) holds an MFA from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (2013) and a post-MA in Materialities and New Technologies, Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, SE (2019). Recent exhibitions include Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, DK; Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR, Malmö Kunsthal, SE, and Embassy of Denmark, DC, US. Reyman is represented by Bjorn & Gundorph Gallery, Aarhus, DK, and Galerie JAG, Paris, FR.

            DK
SLIM & KRYSTAL ::: ÆG & ASKE - en undersøgelse af feministiske forbindelser til naturen og hjemmet

 ÆG & ASKE tager udgangspunkt i de forbindelser som kvinder har haft til naturen og hjemmet igennem historien.

Den sætter fokus på den videnskab, praktikalitet, kunst(håndværk), sundhedsfaglighed, omsorgsarbejde og åndelig vejledning, som kvinder igennem tiden har udviklet og formidlet i forbindelse med det ’at holde hus’.

 SLIM & KRYSTAL er et kunst-kollektiv startet af filmkunstner Sidse Carstens i 2018. Kollektivet antager forskellige konstellationer alt efter hvilket projekt det beskæftiger sig med, det kan f.eks. være koncerter, performance eller billedkunst.

Ved udstillingen ÆG & ASKE beskæftiger SLIM & KRYSTAL sig hovedsagelig med billedkunst, og de deltagende kunstnere er Rose Eken, Camilla Reyman og Sidse Carstens

Finissage på udstillingen ÆG & ASKE 

Program:
16.00 - 17.00 Satisfying Soup performance 
17.30 Servering af suppe til de fremmødte
18.00 Koncert med Henriette Sennenvaldt

Lyt med når Sidse Carstens og Nils Gröndahl opfører ASMR lydperformance Satisfying Soup.
ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) handler om at sanse sin krop, ved at se og høre hvordan forskellige materialer bearbejdes. Satisfying Soup er en gåsehudsfremkaldende lydoplevelse af suppe der bliver tilberedt blandet med elektroniske klange. Denne performance kan du kun opleve gennem headsets og til sidst vil suppen blive serveret for publikum.

Når suppe er serveret, spiller Henriette Sennenvaldt og band en koncert med numre fra solodebuten Something Wonderful. Soloværket dykker ned i nyt territorium der balancerer mellem ømhed og camp. Det nye værk er forunderligt, foruroligende, intrikat, prekært og delikat, som få albums er.
Det opstiller et univers der kan synes konstant på randen af sammenbrud, men som gang på gang griber sig selv gennem Sennenvaldts knitrende, idiosynkratiske stemme. Genremæssigt er det et altædende og originalt væsen – det kunne være jazz, pop, art rock, lydkunst – men forankres alligevel i en søgende, svævende og elegant foranderlighed.