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Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen
press release
Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen
From September 3rd to October 16th 2004
Opening Friday September 3rd 2004 from 17-19.
It is a great pleasure to present an exhibition with new paintings
and photo-works by Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen.
Many of the works from the exhibition are influenced by Christian
Schmidt-Rasmussen's experience of living in the area Syd Havnen
in Copenhagen. Home of the artist himself, Syd Havnen functions
as a sort of Copenhagen terrain vague, an area ill defined that
has sprawled by itself in-between more established settlements.
Originally an old landfill, it has collected different people having
trouble being absorbed into the city and it has of course attracted
its share of bohemians and free-spirits.
A life on the brink of society is a life free from rules and strictures.
As the artist puts it, freedom understood as flapping your arms
in a small porcelain shop, and subsequently, one would imagine,
spreading shards and fragments all around. This feeling of freedom
is reflected in the baroque and often chaotic humour that lies as
a constant current in his work. Hierarchies are broken down in a
constant stream of irony and subverted meanings as Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen
challenges the values of our society.
Perhaps even more so freedom can also be understood as an aesthetic
maxim; Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen consciously uses all the conventions
of art and image making and then rejects them. Thus, there is no
single influence in his work but a pluralism of different elements;
1960s hippie iconography, which is then mixed with painterly techniques
including dripping and sketching. Various images are combined to
contradictory effect. Especially evident in his photo-works where
fragments, both own and found, are fused together in a way that
forces a new narrative.
Resembling a recipe for total creative chaos, there seem to be no
rules to dictate how Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen's works are made.
They simply grow by a free will of their own. Even so the images
has a brash directness that stems from his expressive arrangement
of colour and form. One is never in doubt that the works have meaning,
it just to find it in between the pieces.
Claus
Robenhagen September 2004
We are happy to welcome you in the gallery.
Galleri Nicolai Wallner
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