The End of the World and After
"Braut" by Tiril Hasselknippe
Magenta Plains
As I walked into the gallery, I felt like I entered a post-apocalyptic world. Besides the mist and purple light, the space contains five concrete Doric pillars in descending order. The top of each pillar contains a basin filled with water, pebbles, sand, and coal. Downstairs, a steel sculpture models an imaginary city resides between the two columns of the basement under the tint orange light. The city model looks like a maze with tube-like parts that also gradient from the tallest at the outer edge to the lowest to the ground at the center. The gradient, as both seen within the work and in the gallery space, implies the infrastructure of modern society. The water on top of the pillars proposes potential sites for survival and existence. Hasselknippe’s work makes me think of the Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, with its meditations on culture, memory, and longing. In an interview, Hasselknippe explained that the infrastructure she built in her sculpture suggests hope for human survival. I found myself struggling to connect with this resolution because the descending structure of her sculpture still hints at a hierarchical system. Although the sculptures show a reversed direction of the hierarchy, low at the center and high at the peripheral, I wonder whether it simplifies the relationship between humans and the infrastructure. It makes me think of what would the world look like if we could think beyond rankings and relative status?
When I first saw Tiril Hasselknippe's work in the basement of the Magenta Plains Gallery, Bykjernens Soldans, I remembered the desert scene in the movie Blade Runner 2049. The apocalyptic atmosphere typically fills in this area of the entire exhibition. The steel city model in the form of a kernel reveals a pure sense of desolation. However, going out of the gallery and looking at the real world where we are living right now, perhaps Hasselknippe wants to remind the audience that we should cherish the current life and the people we love.
ReplyDeleteThe exhibition was summarized in a clear and concise way, at the same time reflecting the romantic approach in its press release. It would be helpful to mention the artist’s name, work or even the gallery space at the start of the review. The two artwork/sculpture pieces have different names and by mentioning the title while talking about each of them would clear up some misunderstanding for readers. By ending the review with a reference to other works, it provided directions for the reader to further interpret the intention of the artworks.
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