Contemporary Art – Between Chaos and Control

Trine Boesen’s work, “Explosions”, stands in stark contrast to Raben Davidsen and Søndergaard’s controlled women. The themes of Boesen’s explosive collages take on a new and important relevance at this moment in time. The artist’s keen eye for worlds that are shattered and out of joint captures precisely what many of us are feeling right now. In the work, various fragments large and small, butterfly wings, iron pipes, lamp posts and key rings are shot indiscriminately into a weightless, infinite space. Everything is totally at the mercy of the uncontrollable, invisible forces behind it, with no way of knowing what will be hardest hit. Conversely, with its artistic neatness and execution, the work also displays great equilibrism and control.

Reconciling With History

Artist Nina Klevan’s provocative series of photographs, “Potency”, is at first glance sombre stuff, articulating the bleak aspects of our shared history, but from a contemporary standpoint. Photos of a baby dressed in the costumes of various dictators, from Idi Amin to Hitler, hang side by side – 10 different ones. The mismatched serial connection between baby and dictator forces us to reflect. Despite what one could be led to believe, the work has not been created in sympathy with the dictators – the artist’s own grandfather spent time at a concentration camp. It has been created to articulate our relationship with evil and inspire discussion on topics such as whether evil is innate. By dressing the innocent baby – the artist’s own daughter incidentally – in these costumes, Klevan exhibits the dictators’ staged malice and ridiculousness. An attempt to reconcile the terrible chaos of history and take back control with an artistic (humorous) grip.