Friday December 3rd, Hans Alf Gallery invites everyone to join the opening of the last two exhibitions of the year: Louise Hindsgavl’s “The World Ajar” in the main gallery and Anders Brinch’s “Café Malmø” in our project room.
The World Ajar: The world as a jar with its lit half open; a play on words.
When the world is ajar, something is let in, and something is released. Louise Hindsgavl’s jars let you inside (if you dare), tell you secrets from a world, we all know too well, and show you a side of humanity, we all both intuitively recognize and are appalled by.
In her new show, Louise Hindsgavl has decided to abandon porcelain for a while to devote herself to the capricious charm of stoneware. And if you’ve ever questioned the acclaimed ceramicists mastery of the clay, you won’t once you’ve seen her new works in real life. Hindsgavl’s glaze-work is encaptivating and dramatic, her jars rise from the pedestals as if they were actual sentient beings, and the artist’s familiar imagery stands out even more in this coarse material.
The jar has been a cherished ceramic object since the dawn of time – for storing and as a work of art. A rotating canvas, on which the story follows the shape of the jar, begins where it ends, and allows itself to be divided into tableaus, when the eyes embark on the circular journey. Hindsgavl’s jars are massive, heavy, and colorful, and her stories are grotesque and painful. It seems as though the raw and tactile modelling in combination with the untamed glaze helps emphasize a feeling of ferocity that has always been present in the artist’s works. We know the tension from her seemingly virginal porcelain pieces that always hide violent and perverted scenes in the details. But in her colorful stoneware, the white vail of the porcelain has been pulled away, and everything obscene, entertaining, and titillating is allowed to stand out in all its grotesque magnitude.
Still, the underlying theme is the same: What lurks beneath the surface? What disruption and downfall lies ahead? Instead of the material itself – the porcelain – being the vessel of mystery, it is now the form that triggers our curiosity. What hides beneath the tormented masks? How do we find a way into the jar? The window to the world is slightly ajar. Look in. Or look out. The choice is your.
