BITING THE NEST

In the wake of the pandemic and encompassing climate changes, we face globally a state of diminishing control on both the societal and at the individual level. The modernist worldview and the capitalist systems that were developed to fit it have been proved unsustainable, triggering a new swathe of romanticized visions of nature in the Global North, both in concrete and spiritual terms. People are not only compelled to seek spaces for reflection and contemplation in the outdoors, but are also put under pressure by modern lifestyles to assume a certain performativity with nature. We have understood that nature can to some extent heal us, but the project to really embed our harmony with the natural world starts with an inward ability to dialogue with our own nature.

Therefore, what is key to understand is that WE ARE NATURE and that nature’s state is rough, as is our human condition. We have the option to learn to let go of control and ownership of the planet by dismantling anthropocentric worldviews, rather than continuing to drive them. To this end, the exhibition Biting the Nest, which is the first part of Above the Sky, Beneath the Ground, seeks to create a context for examining alternative and current structures explored by artists who are working with slow processes, deep research, re-connections, and reflectivity as methods for an artistic inwardness concerned with new dimensions of materiality and Gaia; i.e. Earth as a conscious being.

Biting the Nest shows contributions from three artists: Anna Samsøe, Anne Guro Larsmon and Linnéa Gad. Their works display a sensitivity in relation to their processing of materials and in the dialogue they create between the artworks in this group show, as well as through their different mediums and approaches.

In the case of Anna Samsøe, who makes clay sculptures combining human aspects and animal expressions with unknown forms, she creates evocative living hybrids that emphasize an uncanny experience of creation that is difficult to categorize. In Samsøe’s work, the materiality of sound is further examined in her sculptures through their play with the perception of reality and the physical environment itself.

In contrast, Anne Guru Larsmon studies the intelligence of flowers with inspiration from Charles Darwin’s drawings of plant movements executed in 1880. Darwin’s drawings also happen to be reminiscent of star maps, and through abstraction Larsmon has transformed the patterns of these into sculptures. She is concerned with materials, such as brass and steel, and also adds a series of glass works to this exhibition, which contain healing plants like Elderberry and poisonous ones as Lily of the Valley or Lady's Glove.

Linnéa Gad immerses herself in the investigation of limestone, oyster shells and lapis lazuli, driven by her fascination with materials that are different forms of one mineral - lime. Gad has on that account been searching for ways to sculpt only in lime, utilizing its diversity or its willingness to bind with different versions of itself. Her contribution in this exhibition then becomes an exercise in thinking about the life cycles of lime as material and understanding time frames beyond that of a single human.

By putting forward these different approaches to how to work consciously and ethically with materiality, this first exhibition part suggests how we can engage in the world around us in a more curious, empathetic and respectful way. To this end, this curatorial research project seeks to investigate different artistic approaches to materiality, performativity, and contemporary societal structures by broadening the perspective on engagement and re-connection. Hoping with the best of intentions that this will help cultivate new approaches for collective behaviour, between human and non-human entities, and through a phenomenological and non-hierarchical approach.

Bios

Anna Samsøe (b. 1987) is a Danish artist who lives and works in Skive, Denmark. Samsøe graduated from the Funen Academy of Fine Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. She works across various materials and media as clay and sound, where she is interested in investigating ideas of reality and immateriality. Samsøe’s work has been exhibited at Gl. Holtegaard, Brandts 13 and Gl. Strand among others. https://www.annasamsoee.com/

Anne Guro Larsmon (b. 1981) is a Norwegian artist based in Oslo and Los Angeles with a BFA from Bergen National Academy of the Arts and a MFA from California Institute of the Arts. Her work is mostly based on analytical research, ideas and content derived from a scientific point of view as well as mythological and cinematographic heritage. Larsmon’s work has been exhibited at the Jace Space (LA), Vigeland Museum (NO), IAC Malmö (SE) and Charlottenborg Kunsthal (DK) among others. http://www.anneguro.com/

Linnéa Gad (b. 1990) is a Swedish artist with a BFA in Fine Arts from Parsons The New School for Design and is currently earning her MFA in Fine Arts at Columbia University School of The Arts in New York. With landscape as her subject matter, Gad explores geological change, calling for empathy for the earth’s resources through printmaking, sculpture and installations. Recent solo exhibitions include Erratics at Spencer Brownstone Gallery and Mound Remover at New Release Gallery in NYC. Her first publication is to be released with RSS Press in 2022. https://linneagad.com/

Rebekka Elisabeth Anker-Møller (b. 1984) is an independent curator with a curatorial practice concerned with new media, biomimicry, social structures, gender and performativity. She holds an MA in Visual Culture from Copenhagen University and an international MA in Curation from Aarhus University. Earlier she co-organized the exhibition space RØM and assisted the performance project VEGA|ARTS, as well as producing exhibitions at Kunsthal Aarhus and Holstebro Kunstmuseum. Currently she is working as a consultant on the sculpture park project 17 Goals on My Mind in Anneberg Kulturpark, Odsherred, Denmark.