CITY & COUNTRY


Paul Scott (UK), Marianne Nielsen, Inger Heebøll and Ann Linnemann (DK)

2 June – 9 July 2022

Exhibition opening Thursday, 2 June at 16.00–20.00

The exhibition was curated by Ann Linnemann

Nature has moved into the city, and the city has moved to the country. Sustainable thoughts and actions are now also focusing on urban environments and green areas – full of weeds and wild plants. Culture and nature live together in harmony or wage war on each other. Our world is facing the challenge of global warming and natural disasters but is also soothed by a dream of simple country living.
In this exhibition, these contemporary forces and ideas are related to the ceramic tradition for craft and industry in ceramic pieces that explore poetic, conceptual or idealistic paths and routes. 

In contributions with political undertones, the four ceramics artists offer insights into the universe that emerges when city and country meet. From their respective vantage points they guide the audience into personal and artistic interpretations of the theme of CITY & COUNTRY – directly and clearly moulded, printed or painted on ceramic objects in naturalistic, idealist, ironic or reflective expressions, depending on temperament. A diverse experience with a wealth of different visions, all revolving around the wonders of nature and the man-made factors that shape our world – for better and worse. 

Ever since Rosseau and the beautiful portrayals of rural or wild nature by the Danish Golden Age painters as well as the fabulous nature morte tradition with naturalistic still lifes of dishes of rotting fruit and impressive displays of hunting game, artists have sought to present nature, life and death in unusual and thought-provoking ways. This aesthetic presentation goes hand in hand with the spooky and unsettling aspects we sometimes forget in our enthusiasm over the beauty of the works. 

British Paul Scott’s landscape pieces continue a new line in his artistic oeuvre: Cumbrian Blue(s), which features painted and printed images. Danish Scenery, Stigsnæs  is an antique dish decorated with silk-screen prints. In a simple approach, Marianne Nielsen incorporates leaf images into a cultural expression. The leaf remains a leaf but also turns into something new in an interesting contrast between the artificial and the natural. Inger Heebøll’s work series Nye habitater (New habitats) is a series of tableaux in Danish earthenware based on observations and ideas of the impact of human behaviour on our surroundings. What happens when city and country meet, as we continue to encroach on nature, and nature has to find room on human terms? Ann Linnemann examines narratives about the notion of living in the country, being in two places at once, moving between city and country. From the vessel København (Copenhagen), painted with glaze, and a set of wheel-thrown cups with blue prints to found objects from an old fisherman’s cottage.