November 13, 2009
HELLE MARDAHL “STAGE POWER“ SOLO EXHIBITION AT CIRCLECULTURE GALLERY
OPENING: JANUARY 20, 2010 AT 5 PM // EXHIBITION: UNTIL MARCH 6
TUE - SAT, 2 TO 6 PM
With Stage Power, Danish artist Helle Mardahl makes us experience an opulence of material and structure as the technical essence of her art. The exhibition consists of a series of individual works that become a single coherent installation, including paintings, drawings, three-dimensional textile collages, photo-collages, prints, and sculptures. With Stage Power, the artist distances herself from the clichés of fashion while she simultaneously creates her art in the hand-crafted skill of a Haute Couture production.
"The Loaded Woman"
Helle Mardahl’s graphic and organic signature style combines a multitude of artistic techniques. Her remarkable visual acuity references her background as avant-garde fashion designer and the extraordinary level of details (assisted by seven couturiers) encompasses a complex network of political and socio-critical themes. Her staged photographs melt together drawn, painted, printed and sewn features, blurring our perception of the real and the fake. Iconic items taken of the Danish Royal family as well as internationally recognized icons of power (the eagle, royal blue, fire and diamonds) intertwine with her usual cast of significant personas.
"The Bouquet"
Stage Power is both a showdown and an acknowledgment of Mardahl’s own development and process as a visual artist. She hails from an architect home praising minimalistic lines, but during her education at St. Martins College in London she came to explore colours, confusion and details. The pleasing, delicate surface and humorous elements are only means to drag the audience into the real stage where the story transpires. The question is, who is the director, the actor and the audience. Mardahl has set the stage and the recipient is asked to decide.
Helle Mardahl was born in 1976. She graduated with a degree at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London. The artist lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. With her avant-garde graphic designs and the unique use of hand-crafted couture, she is one of the most acclaimed artistic talents in evolving from the worlds of fashion, art and design.
“In this exhibition, Helle Mardahl confronts the clichéd aesthetics. From a minimalist stage inspired by the typical Nordic white walls, she unfolds a theatre of contrasts and symbolic characters, power play and misuse of the same. The independent meets the dependent, the well educated meets the unskilled, the homosexual meets the heterosexual and so on. This sometimes-absurd battlefield is Mardahl’s call for a greater tolerance.”
Carla Christine Bruus Strube
In cooperation with
Selected Exhibitions:
„The Largest Possible Audience“ (Solo Exhibition) LaViolaBank Gallery, New York, 2009
Fabric for Thought – Sustainable Fashion at Koldinghus (Group Exhibition) Koldinghus Museum, 2009
„A Royal Orgy of Consumption“ (Solo Exhibition) WAS Gallery, Copenhagen, 2008
Illustrative, International Illustration Forum (Group Exhibition) Zurich, 2008
„Falling into the Unknown“ (Solo Exhibition) San Carlos Museum, Mexico City, 2008; an installation presented at San Carlos foyer. The Danish Queen inaugurated the exhibition
„What Does Not Live Inside“ (Solo Exhibition) Apartment Gallery, Berlin, 2007