Exhibitions

Fall 2021

Yvette Brackman & Esben Weile Kjær: Anxiety of Influence

The artists Yvette Brackman (1967) and Esben Weile Kjær (1992) both play an important role in the history of Krabbesholm Højskole. Esben Weile Kjær has left his clear mark teaching in a number of performance workshops. Yvette Brackman has been a part of the school’s DNA since the late nineties

In connection with a workshop at Krabbesholm, Esben Weile Kjær discovers Yvette Brackmans sculpture ‘Camp’, and with the over 25-year-old work as the focal point, they agree to do an exhibition and a spectacular collaboration.

‘Camp’ was created for Krabbesholm in 1999 with a performative aim to be used by a group of students who at the time agreed to perform naked in the woods on bright red ‘stones’ made of polyurethane, flamingo and foam, and in which the students’ body imprints are left as fossils, as part of the work’s narrative of sexuality – about how we form and reproduces ourselves.

In ‘Anxiety of Influence’, the artists meet for a dialogue about the work ‘Camp’ and what would happen with students consent‘ today. The exhibition is also a dialogue between the two artists’ practices. What happens when Yvette Brackman‘s bright red fossils with naked body imprints from 1999 are put together with classic elements from Esben Weile Kjær’s practice such as mirrors, neon and disco lights that mimic youth and party culture? With their respective works 'Camp’ and ‘Society’, Yvette Brackman and Esben Weile Kjær opens the conversation under the light of the disco ball.

The disco ball, ‘Sun’, sheds light on the joint work ‘Mirror Play 1 and 2’. Here, photo recordings from the construction of ‘Camp’ in 1999 are put together in a pane pattern where pieces of mirror glass cover the faces of the naked students and provide the necessary anonymization. At the same time they point to the exhibition‘s’ nervous’ field of interest – what influence and commitment do you have as an artist when depicting other people in your art, and does a consent have an expiration date?

The second collaborative piece ‘Pleasure Project’ lies in the dark on 1st floor. The masturbating figure from Pompeii is elegantly placed on butt plugs and gathers threads for ‘Camps’ bright red body fossils, mythologizing of our collective memory and notion of sexuality. The character unleashes them again in a remake of a meme. Adding to the narrative of popular culture. In this way, the exhibition ‘Anxiety of Influence’ stretches all the way back to antiquity and up to now.

Ground floor: On the floor ‘Camp’ (Yvette Brackman 1999). On the back wall ‘Society’ (Esben Weile Kjær 2021). On the wall ‘Mirror Play 1 and 2’ (Esben Weile Kjær, Yvette Brackman 2021). Hanging from the ceiling: ‘Sun’ (Esben Weile Kjær 2021).

1st floor: ‘Pleasure Project’ (Esben Weile Kjær, Yvette Brackman 2021).