V1 GALLERY PROUDLY PRESENTS
Tableau
An exhibition by Rose Eken
Tableau is a new large-scale ceramic installation by Rose Eken. Through an extensive research period Eken corresponded with contemporary artists around the world and received photos of their studios, working tables and tools of the trade. Based on the material Eken has created a large meta studio in ceramics – a fictional atelier – where every object refers back to a specific artist’s practice and working environment. The collected installation transcends the individual artist and speaks to our general notion of how art is produced and experienced, the artist’s role and our perception of the art world. Tableau mimics our collective idea of what the artist’s studio should be, but at the same time it also challenges the very same notion; the atelier as being a mystical and almost sacred place for creation. In Rose’s Tableau the studio is also a workspace where things are organized according to routines, personality and practice. A lab for creation that reflects both inspiration and labour.
In Eken’s studio you find Richard Colman’s coffee mug filled with pens and pencils, on the side of the mug an image of a crab and the text “DON’T BOTHER ME – I’M CRABBY. Jonathan Meese’s collection of kids musical boxes. John Copeland’s spatula stained with his signature palet, his collection of vintage Playboy magazines and old axe. Michael Kvium’s taxidermied magpie. Fryd Frydendahl’s Canon EOS D5 Camera. Wes Lang’s collection of old wooden tobacco pipes. Erik Parker’s transparent buckets of ingenious labeled paint with titles such as “REAL TRUTH SHADOW” and “UP THE BEACH”. Eken’s own worn out boots, paint splattered jacket and containers of ceramic glaze.
Tableau is Rose Eken’s largest installation to date. Comprised of hundreds of ceramic objects; brushes, buckets of paint, box cutters, towers of tape, clusters of books and magazines, half finished cups of coffee, cigarette butts, ghetto blasters, laptops, Iphones and all the small personal effects we bring into our workspace to inspire, remind us of something or make us smile.
Rose Eken was born in Denmark (1976) and graduated from the Royal College of Art in London in 2003. She received critical praise for her recent solo exhibition Remain In The Light at The Hole gallery in New York. Her first work from the “Tableau series” was acquired by ARoS museum of art in the summer of 2015. A new publication documenting the process and exhibition will be released to coincide with Tableau. Rose Eken would like to thank the following artists for inspiration and for sharing their studios: Michelle Grabner, Erwin Wurm, Søren Behncke, Joakim Ojanen, Ivan Andersen, Mikael Swaney, Richard Colman, Shane Bradford, Jonathan Meese, Eske Kath, Julie Nord, HuskMitNavn, Hartmut Stockter, Andreas Schulenburg, Kaspar Bonnén, Chloe Piene Studio, Maiken Bendt, Cecily Brown, John Copeland, Graham Dolphin, Alexander Tovborg, Morten Schelde, Michael Kvium, Wes Lang, Fryd Frydendahl, Hesselholdt & Mejlvang, Kristian Devantier, Erik Parker, Fischli & Weiss, Jackson Pollock and Joan Miró.
