Djóragerðir hjá Claus Carstensen

Fríggjadagin 11.mars letur nýggja serframsýningin hjá Claus Carstensen upp í Galleri Tom Christoffersen í Keypmannahavn í Skindergade 5 beint við Rundatorn.  Framsýningin eitur Dyregørelse og tekur støði í myndum av bannaðum hestabardagum á Filipinsku Oyggjunum. Í tíðindaskrivi stendur:

I malerierne er hestehoveder det gennemgående motiv, hvor de indtegnes og nærmest indflettes i en ekspressiv sort og grøn abstraktion. Hestens kraftfulde udtryk mimer værkets egen. Overfor maleriernes snørklede sprog står papirarbejdernes rene opblæste hestebilleder, kun subtilt defacede og klokkeklare i deres fremtræden. Ikke midt imellem, men alligevel som en slags balancerende vægt, afsluttes udstillingen af en serie modifikationer, hvor der er arbejdet videre på allerede færdige tryk og tegninger med hestemotiver.
 
Udstillingens malerier, defaced posters og modifikationer handler samlet set om begrebet Dyregørelser:
 
’Dyregørelse’ er en tosidet, antropologisk størrelse, hvor begge sider har noget med hinanden at gøre, og som handler om gradueringer afbegreber som kultur, bevidsthedsopståen, selvbevidsthed og det særligt menneskelige. Der findes en aforisme, der siger: At leve er at tabe terræn. Det skal forstås på den måde, at forskellen mellem mennesket og dyret er, at mennesket er bevidst om, at det ikke lever i et åbent, endeløst terræn, men ser sig selv tabe terræn – modsat dyret, der ser et åbent, uafgrænset, tidløst landskab, hvor der ikke er et ’før’ eller et ’efter’ og derfor heller ingen dødsbevidsthed.
 
Dyregørelse eksisterer i en en agressiv, aktiv form og så en passiv form. Den passive del, “dyreblivelsen”, udgøres af en enorm længsel efter evigt liv uden dødsbevidsthed – evighedskulten er menneskets ældste sygdom. Den aktive del, “dyregørelsen”, handler om at gøre “de andre” til dyr med en bevidsthed om, at man står højere i hierakiet end dem man fornedrer.
 
Dyret er således både attråværdigt, men samtidig forkastet, og dette komplekse forhold belyses i Claus Carstensens værker. Vi stilles overfor billeder der kræver noget, trænger ind, og som i yderste konsekvens minder os om det uundgåelige - eller omvendt måske nærmere minder os om det åbenlyse, at vi skal huske at leve livet.
 

Claus Carstensen er citeret fra interviews i kataloget ”Whats Left (Is Republican Paint) – Nine Sisters” fra ARoS og på Kopenhagen.dk.
 

Dyregørelser Claus Carstensen
 

Opening: Friday 11.3. 2016 5-8pm
Duration: 12.3 – 9.4 2016

 The works in Claus Carstensen’s new solo show at Galleri Tom Christoffersen are specifically based on horse fights in the Philippines. Horse heads are the recurring motifs drawn and merged into an expressive black and green abstraction. The powerful expression of the horse mimes the one of the work. Opposite the tortious language of the paintings are the pure bloated horse pictures in the paper works just subtly defaced and clear-cut in their appearance. Not in-between, but nonetheless as a kind of balancing weight, the exhibition is finished by a series of modifications through further work on already completed prints and drawings with horse motifs.
 
The paintings, defaced posters and modifications in the exhibition is about the concept Dyregørelser (Animalisation):
 
”Dyregørelser is a two-sided anthropological size, the two sides being interrelated, and it is about modulations of concepts such as culture, emergence of consciousness and the particular humanly. An aphorism tells: To live is to loose terrain. It is to be understood by the difference between the human and the animal, namely that the human is conscious about that he or she  does not live in an open, endless terrain, but sees oneself losing terrain – contrary to the animal seeing an open, unbounded, timeless landscape, neither containing a ‘before’ nor an ‘after’, thus neither being conscious of death.
 
Dyregørelser exists both in an aggressive active form and in a passive form. The passive part, the “animal-becoming”, is composed by an enormous yearning for eternal life without conscience of the death – the cult of eternity is the oldest sickness of the human. The active part, “animalisations”, is about turning “the others” into animals aware of being positioned higher in the hierarchy than those being debased by the animalisation.”
 
Thus the animal is at once desirable and rejected, and Claus Carstensen highlights this complex relationship in his works. We are confronted with pictures demanding something, penetrating, and as the extreme reminding us about the inevitable - or contrarily they might remind us more of the obvious, to remember to live life.
 
Claus Carstensen is quoted from interviews in the catalogue ”Whats Left (Is Republican Paint) – Nine Sisters” from ARoS and from Kopenhagen.dk.
 

Claus Carstensen (b. 1957 DK) studied at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen 1977-1983, where he later taught as a professor from 1993-2002. He is represented in several great collections, a.o.: The National Gallery of Denmark, ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Arken Museum of Modern Art, Lichtenstein Museum of Fine Arts and Universalmuseum Joanneum / Neue Galerie Graz. Recent exhibitions: 2015: What’s Left (Is Republican Paint) – Nine Sisters, ARoS Aarhus Art Museum 2013: På Papiret, Øregaard Museum, Gentofte, Pavilion of The Naked, Himmerland Art Museum, Aars and Morsø Kunstforening, Nykøbing Mors, Klaksvikaffærer, Nordatlantens Brygge, Copenhagen. He curated the exhibition Café Dolly - Francis Picabia, Julian Schnabel and J. F. Willumsen in collaboration with Christian Vind at J.F. Willumsens Museum, 2013. Recent publications: Blindhentede Dage – Digte 1975-2015, MS Publications, The Faroe Islands, 2015. TERR, Antipyrine Publications, 2015. Lille dæmonologi / Dét, hvorom man hverken kan tale eller tie. Essays af Søren Ulrik Thomsen og heliografiske arbejder af Claus Carstensen, Steinprent Publications, 2013.
 

Claus Carstensen: Untitled, 2015, posca, pencil and ink on paper, 30 x 18 cm