half mask half space (the art of self-defence), 2016.

Martin Erik Andersen, half mask half space (the art of self-defence)
29 April – 28 May 2016

The relation between surface and space – and how the two interact to shape visual experience – is an essential theme in Martin Erik Andersen’s 2 dimensional works, as well as in his work in general. The 2d works emphasize the physical matter you are confronting, while also stressing the otherness of the subjects. They are both representing a picture as well as the marginal delimitation of the surface itself. As an example the edge of the paper is conceived as equal to a line drawn with a pencil.

In recent years the works’ subjects have to large extent consisted of recirculations of own work documentation, sketches, models and process photos. But despite the apparently private and pronounced self-reflective basis of these subjects they don’t come across as especially private. For the subject matter is always deconstructed through a series of different media (from collage to embroidery) and techniques (for example drawing, photo and digital processing), altering it, making it appear as otherness, and moving it partially outside the known categories of language. In other words the subjects are put in a tense relation to a resistance in the media themselves on which they are reproduced. Transparent folios, knitwear, carpets and worn-out paper are not just acting as backgrounds, but seem to carry out an independent visual discourse establishing and destabilizing micro territories. What the works are performing is fundamentally this breakdown of our frame of references, where the categories of perception are falling slightly apart and possibly gets a chance to reorganize differently.

In case you are new to the works the deconstruction of subject matter takes place already because of the use of a private photo instead of public or mass culture images. In any case it becomes evident the moment the subject is mirrored, turned upside down, printed on another type of paper, overwritten with text (which can also be either mirrored or turned upside down), over painted with silver leaf, or any combination of the above. The deconstruction or expansion of subject matter is also closely connected to the work titles carrying references to an encompassing and eclectic cultural space of religion, mythology, literature, cinema and music. The clash between work and language is especially foregrounded in those works where text is directly included next to other work elements. The personal becomes trans-personal, matter becomes autonomous, or camouflaged, protected against exposure. Content is at once masked and displayed in surfaces confronting each other, like a self-reflecting, flickering, empty mirror, quietly filling itself with otherness.

In the 2d works the person and the site are dissolved as substantial things, and are replaced by vertigo, self-mirroring and blindness. And the idea of self-identity is changed into a chain of transformations, as for instance, in a series of works where mythological figures are covering up the figure of the artist: Golem – Alef – Percht. The otherness of the mask is perhaps a kind of resistance to the disappearance of things into one-dimensionality. Viewed as a whole the works seem to be advocating hyper sensibility; not as escape but as vigilant defence against our common culture. All the formal and material translations, explosions or maskings taking place in the works, become a way to maintain what is not identical; a hope that something else exists and can be shared.