Land & History
Salon 75 @ Magma Maria
23 august - 8 september 2024
The exhibition Land & History by Salon 75 at Magma Marie presents new work by artists Hedvig Greiffenberg, Christine Dahlerup, Frej Volander Himmelstrup, Sofus Keiding-Agger, and Theodor Nymark. The presentation of works unfolds and examines the metaphorical quality of the politics and poetics of land and space, imposing a revised gaze onto the ephemeral and transformative aspect so pivotal to civilisation. The selection of works each represents the positioning of the practice of the artists concerning these very questions and in their common field of negating a threshold.
Untitled (resurrectionaries) 2024
Biodegrable bag, wildflowers, LED light and vinyl on wall.
The wall text is a draft from the book The Intelligence of Flowers by novelist and playwright Maurice Maeterlinck that became popular among pictorialist artists such as Baron Adolph De Meyer and Alvin Langdon Coburn for its abstract, playful depiction of the world of flowers and their metaphorical qualities and position in an industrial society which eventually inspired their work and the photographs of flower decorations.
Beneath it lies 4 branded bio bags from Copenhagen curled up on the floor along the wall that contains battery-powered LED lights and wildflowers gathered from the surrounding area of Magma Maria. These ephemeral and sculptural lamps wish to mimic a metaphorical depiction of energy transformed and generated within a biological compost system and similarly function and represent an encapsulation and mapping of the surrounding area.
Untitled 1-5 (after Maeterlinck) 2024
Inkjet print on Hahnemühle in clip frame and vinyl on wall.
The photographic series represents a new body of work influenced by the Pictorialist movement of photography in the late 19th century, which explored not only the role of photography in art at the time but also delved into the ‘blurry’ or unsharp image and its reflection on themes of ecology, industry, and spirituality.
The framed pieces exhibited at Magma Maria are iPhone photographs with either inverted colors, Gaussian blur, or motion blur applied, and are printed in color on Hahnemühle paper. By employing contemporary methods and techniques rather than the traditional photographic strategies used during the Pictorialist movement, the project aims to reintroduce the notion of pictorialism and its intention to embrace the painterly, abstract, and possibly spiritual qualities of photography.
The title and wall text suggest a reference to the novelist and playwright Maurice Maeterlinck, specifically his publication "The Intelligence of Flowers," which became popular among Pictorialist artists such as Baron Adolph De Meyer and Alvin Langdon Coburn for its abstract and playful depiction of flowers and their metaphorical qualities and position in an industrial society. This work ultimately inspired their photographic explorations of flower decorations.
Hearth 2024
Bicycle helmet airbag (Hövding), LED flame bulb and vinyl on wall