FLESH, OR THE COLOUR OF ANY OTHER OBJECT

The most vivid manifestation of Marianne Vierø’s recent experiments is a group of relatively small works cast in pigmented beeswax and resin. While the material is workable in its fluid state, it softens at relatively low temperatures and gets brittle in cold conditions. The continuous softening and hardening result in an ever so slight expansion and contraction, a kind of breathing that to the artist signifies a material at work – a work that might in time reshape the form and meaning of the sculptures. In dialogue with this potential transformation, the sculptures don’t have any given orientation — no up and down, no front and back. Their position is shifting. Rather than being fixed forms they lend themselves to reconfiguration and can be rotated and repositioned each time they are presented.

This aspect of conversion is picked up in a set of black and white fibre-based photograms, that take the sculptures as their subject. Placing, rotating, and repositioning the sculptures directly on the photographic paper and working with multiple exposures, the photograms stand as accurate documents of their sculptural reference, yet independent of their form. Refusing any illusion of space, the three-dimensionality of the objects are simultaneously represented and collapsed by having each print showing the sculptures from multiple angles, but always flattened down to silhouetted shadows. The overlap that emerges from repositioning the sculptures stands out as highlights presenting a bleached-out form that is defined by the sculptures, but which is unique to each photogram. As an underlying rhythm – a kind of riff – the photograms dot the exhibition space in a play with repetition and variation.

Bent aluminium sheets constitute a final element in the space, acting as a support structure for the other works. With each bend conveying a different movement, volume is reintroduced to the photograms while the encaustic medium has been left to run free until a shift in temperature made it settle – as if to capture the ways in which something takes place or develops over time.

About the artist:

Marianne Vierø is a Danish artist based in Copenhagen. She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam. She’s been a resident at Rijksakademie, Amsterdam; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; and Triangle Arts, NYC. Her work has been included in exhibitions at The Art Museum at the University of Toronto; Den Frie, Copenhagen; De Vleeshal, Middelburg; and The Philadelphia Museum of Art, among others.

Marianne Vierø was invited for a research residency at MORPHO by the Thinking Tools Research Group of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp from February to April 2024. The works presented here are a result of this research. With thanks to Billedhuggeren, professor Gottfred Eickhoff og hustrus, maleren Gerda Eickhoffs Fond; the Danish Research Foundation;  the Danish Art Workshops and the Danish Arts Foundation for their support to this exhibition and works presented.

Marianne is a Danish artist based in Copenhagen. She was invited for a research residency @MORPHO by the Thinking Tools Research Group of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp from February to April 2024. With thanks to the Danish Arts Foundation for their support to this exhibition.

The exhibition opens on Wednesday May 10th at 7 PM at MORPHO (The Refectory), enter via Kunsthal Extra City, Provinciestraat 112, 2018 Antwerpen

The exhibition will take place at The Refectory/MORPHO from May 10th until June 7th. Opening times are: Thu–Fri, 1–7pm & Sat–Sun, 11am–6pm.