Apertures
Formation Gallery
07 Jun 2024 – 06 Jul 2024
Opening Friday June 7 5-8 pm
Text by writer and curator Paola Paleari
The photographic field of the 21st century is a bewildering landscape of disparate practices, far removed from the medium's origins nearly two hundred years ago. Amidst technological advancements and discussions around computer-generated imagery, the group exhibition Apertures at Formation Gallery presents three contemporary artists whose works challenge and expand the role of photography today. Their practices prove that a photosensitive surface remains a mystifying territory, rich with conceptual potential and empirical connections.
Spanning through a broad spectrum of techniques and materials, the works by Trine Struwe, Rosalina Kruse Serup and Lasse Bruun transcend the traditional impulse to represent reality, instead occupying a liminal space where they become both photographic objects and indices of the surrounding world. This echoes the early days of photography, when the medium was highly dependent on the physical conditions - such as light and chemical processes - and was more about scientific exploration and artistic experimentation than about capturing "a moment in time".
Trine Struwe's series of photograms - aka pictures created without a camera - are a testament to the experimental nature of early photography. It’s a work in two parts where the black-and-white light-sensitive papers are exposed to street lighting at night, creating a 1:1 indicator of an immaterial yet crucial element of the urban environment after dark. The photograms’ glossy surfaces reflect the viewer and the exhibition space and continue to develop in response to their environment, much like the way early photographers had to contend with the physical unpredictabilities of their medium.
Struwe's work invites viewers to consider their ever-changing relationship with the artwork and the space, emphasizing the power dynamics inherent in photography: what is shown and what is hidden, as well as who sees and who is seen.
Rosalina Kruse Serup explores the medium's evolution by combining an interest for digital techniques with the experimentation with physical supports. Using 3D scanning technology known as Photogrammetry, she transforms photographs into data, questioning the role of photography as mere representation and alluding to the increasingly crucial economic value of digital information. Kruse Serup's work explores the transformation of images and materials, raising questions about what is lost and gained in the digital translation. This echoes the processes of early photographers, who sought to transmute reality from matter to image in a nearly alchemical manner.
Her approach reflects the continuous interplay between nature and human intervention and reminds of the busy testing with light and chemistry typical of 19th century photography.
Lasse Bruun's project, starting with the photographs of property listings from Danish real estate websites, offers a social commentary on the standardized depiction of domestic spaces used for market purposes. The images of the interiors, devoid of any traces of their inhabitants, are printed on plastic paper that poorly absorbs the ink, allowing Bruun to alter them painterly and then transfer them onto used bed sheets and duvet covers. The interplay of patterned textiles and photographic prints creates an illusionary effect that prompts the viewers to reflect on the depicted spaces' authenticity and their relationship to such imagery.
A good deal of early photography similarly navigated the fascination arising from the possibility of breaking the barrier between fiction and reality. The discussions about evidence and the potential for deception sparked back then are still relevant in today's post-digital age, where the manipulation of images is both easily accessible and more sophisticated.
Together, these artists' works connect to the dawn of photography by embracing experimentation, transformation, and the inherent precariousness of their materials. Just as early photographers had to explore the boundaries of the medium to get to understand what it could be, Struwe, Kruse Serup and Bruun push photography into new conceptual territories in a time characterized by an abundance of images, a democratization of image-making tools, and a fluidity of image manipulation and sharing. Apertures at Formation Gallery invites viewers to reflect on the ongoing evolution of photography, recognizing it as a dynamic field that continues to shape and reflect our understanding of the world.
During the Copenhagen Photo Festival, a talk will be held in the gallery on Tuesday, June 11, from 4 to 5 PM with the exhibition's artists in conversation with professor and photography expert Mette Sandbye. The event is supported by Vesterbro Lokaludvalg.
The exhibition is part of the Copenhagen Photo Festival, which takes place at various venues around the city from June 6 to June 16.
About the participating artists:
Lasse Bruun (b. 1990) was born and raised in Odense but now lives in Copenhagen. He graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts’ Schools of Visual Arts – the School of Painting and Image-based Practices under Ferdinand Krag in 2021. He works with painting, photography, and various printing and printmaking techniques. Selected exhibitions include “SHOWPIECE” by Pro Tempore.art Galleri Nicolai Wallner, 2018, “Vault7(compromised)” – Erik Hed & Lasse Bruun, Magasin Lotus, 2019, “Sankt Antonius Fristelser” Tom Christoffersen, 2019, “Det 2. Bud” Richard Winthers Hus, 2019, “JUNE 5 6 7” by Ed Atkins Williams Wainsgade 10, “From one comes two, from two comes three…” Ekely, 2020, “noZzzle”, Collaborations, 2022, “GEWGAW GIMCRACK”, Annika Nuttall Gallery, 2024.
Rosalina Kruse Serup (b. 1991) graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts’ Schools of Architecture, Design, and Conservation in the fall of 2019. Additionally, she has a Bachelor’s degree in Photographic Communication from the Danish School of Media and Journalism. Her work has been featured in both national and international newspapers and exhibitions. Recently, she has participated in the exhibition Young Danish Photography 2019 at the Photography Center and Coleurs du Nord - Trois Photographes Danoises at Gallerie Clémentine de la Féronnière in Paris in collaboration with Maison du Danemark and the Lumières Nordiques photo festival (2020), as well as at galleries Format Artspace (DK) and Sharp Projects (DK).
Trine Struwe (b. 1988) is a Danish visual artist who lives and works in Copenhagen (DK). She has an MA from the Royal College of Arts in London, UK (2020) and a BA from Cooper Union in New York, US, and Malmö Art Academy, SE (2016). Struwe works in a feminist and minimalist manner with sculpture, text, and photography at the intersection of material and concept. Her works are often based on associations and stories related to everyday materials and are precisely tuned to their architectural framework. Her work carefully examines the structures we inhabit and the invisible regulation and control they subject us to. Her recent exhibitions include Safe Light at the Photography Center, 2024, a site-specific installation at Roskilde Festival (DK) 2023, Open Studio at Sorø Art Museum (DK) 2023, solo exhibitions HOLE NO BOTTOM at Bladr (2023) and I, I, I, ), )), ))) at Kunsthal Kongegaarden (DK), 2021. In 2023, she received the Talent Award for sculptors, Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsens Grant.
