Four Boxes Gallery presents the exhibition Mellem tider by visual artist Sophie Hjerl, featuring Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and video works in dialogue with physical objects, creating a kind of new total installation.
With this exhibition, Sophie Hjerl challenges the perception of the virtual versus the physical in themes that revolve around the existential extremes of life. The exhibition examines and dissects the material, which, together with virtual and physical objects, shifts the concept of reality. For when is something truly real, and how are we affected by the immaterial and virtual?
Time and space have always been considered inseparable factors, but with virtual tools, humans can appear on the other side of the globe and now even wage wars over distances that were previously impossible. As in quantum physics, where electrons appear in multiple places at once, we are no longer present in just one place. We are now present in many places in “between times.”
The works are a mix of newer, brand-new, and older pieces that together create new narratives in the exhibition. The viewer moves between the extremes of death and birth, in a limbo between worlds. Hjerl finds it interesting to work with concepts that may seem “banal,” difficult, and prone to missteps. She is intrigued by what happens when these life events or circumstances are evoked in art.
Sophie Hjerl’s practice is rooted in sculpture and movement – the solid and the fluid. From working primarily with video art, she now also engages with XR (Extended Realities) – virtual works connected to the physical world. Hjerl has always consciously aimed to create counter-images to the world’s flood of images, with a strong sense of sensuality in the synthetic. Through the new XR media, she works with what she calls: The body as consciousness in space. Hjerl defines this as the XR media’s strongest virtual and spatial potential.
Sophie Hjerl is a graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, holds a diploma in choreography, and has a master’s degree in Art Theory and Communication. She is teaching at Krabbesholm Højskole from 2023-25. Learn more at: www.sophiehjerl.com.
Between Times 05.10.2024 – 27.10.2024 Opening on 5th October 2024, at 17:00. Preview on 4th October 2024, at 20:00.
Public tours will be held at 19:30 on the following dates: 8th – 10th October 12th October 19th – 20th October 22nd – 24th October 26th – 27th October
Four Boxes Gallery is an exhibition space at Krabbesholm Højskole.
With thanks for help and support to: Glas og Ramme Skive, Peter Meldgaard, Jesper Fleng, Rasmus Koch, Krabbesholm Højskole, and Kulturelt Samråd Skive.