Bjarne Melgaard
nothing special
12.09.02 - 02.11.02
The title of Bjarne Melgaard's first solo-exhibition at Galleri Faurschou is to be thought of as a deliberate understatement -an ironic, yet humoristic comment on the contemporary art-scene. A scene - that according to Melgaard is becoming more and more pretentious, where mega-exhibitions loaded with theoretic curatorial themes seems to be the norm and where the apparent desperate search for 'the new' - results in even very young artists being promoted as 'something special'.
But the title Nothing Special also indicates, that Bjarne Melgaard wanted to work with a more poetic and relaxed approach by centring this exhibition on painting, drawing, colour, and narrative. In his previous exhibitions Bjarne Melgaard's chosen mode of expression has been video, photography, sculpture and performance, and his artistic starting point has been found in the Nordic Black Metal music-culture as well as the homosexual S/M scene.
In the characteristic expressionistic style of Melgaard, the whole gallery space is put to use for a total-installation of his artwork. Nothing Special consists of a series of new drawings entitled 'Chemical Diary', another row of drawings transferred onto plastic-banners, small sculptures in an installation, and new paintings. The paintings are not all new - some of the pieces dates back to 1997, and have previously been presented at exhibitions in both Scandinavia and Europe. These older paintings have been re-worked by Melgaard during his stay in Copenhagen this summer-by adding new elements to them; an old theme in a painting has been taken up or they have been given a whole new expression.
For those familiar with the works of Bjarne Melgaard, the exhibition will clearly be a turn from the previously black painted walls, the gothic atmosphere, the staged burning of his work and the blood-filled suicide performances that characterized his co-operation with the drummer Frost from the Black Metal band Satyricon. Even though the painting, the drawing and the colour is at the centre of Nothing Special, for viewers without knowledge of Bjarne Melgaard, the meeting with his works will undoubtedly provoke a reaction because of the themes taken up in his artistic practise. These being death, suicide, homosexual sadomasochism, escapism, the attraction of subcultures, the use/abuse of drugs, violence and existential loneliness - all themes typical of his exploration of different forms of masculine identity.
'Chemical Diary' is a fictive narrative expressed in pastel-drawings juxtaposed with text inspired by authors such as Benjamin Weissman, Robert James Baker and Stephen Spender. In the drawings we encounter Tiger, a central character, who is part of a homosexual S/M environment where the experimentation with speed, bondage and group-sex of a hardcore nature is a common feature. For Tiger, the alternative to part-taking, is the superficial 'Gym-Queens' whose quest for identity lies in the continual shaping and re-shaping of their bodies in the gym and use of anabolic steroids. At Galleri Faurschou we encounter 'Part 4= Recovery' of Tiger's diary, the part where he has become 'clean' and starts reflecting on the emotional and financial loses his previous dependency has resulted in. Tiger carefully starts dreaming of his future, a life not unlike that presented in a Hockney painting.
The reference to the life Hockey portraits is of importance, as beneath the blue swimming pools and gigantic villas lies that coldness and the social loneliness that re-occurs as themes in Melgaard's work. 'You are my sunken beach' it says on one of the largest, semi-transparent banners multi-layered on the gallery-walls. Printed on the banners are Melgaard's drawings, details from drawings, own text as well as printed text found on S/M and dance-club fliers that have been deconstructed to the almost abstract by a computer program. This abstraction underlines the thematic coldness, in stark contrast to the clear pastel colours of the banners.
Both the exhibited paintings and the drawings make use of such contradictions: The contrast between the soft expressionistic line of the pencil and the sexual activity of the figuration; the juxtaposition of a cliché-filled Olivia Newton John lyric and the image of a bleeding male body having been succumbed to S/M. It is with these clashes of style and expression, Melgaard can be characterised as a barrier-breaking artist. Examples of this are also present in the texts used in his installations. These are writings of a very private character written in the perspective of a personal narrative- thus the boundaries between the private and the public as well as that of the fictive and the real are dissolved, or blurred, as a result.
The continuous exploration of identity and how identity is constructed has its point of reference in Bjarne Melgaard's own experience and yet the theme stretches itself to other areas marginalized by society. Taken up by the artist is the question of young people's abuse of steroids and the chemical industries' continual supply of substances making it possible for people to transform their bodies with hormones and other chemicals. Though without presenting private examples or sociological studies with ready answers, Melgaard is both an engaged participant as well as an observer.
Opening Thursday 12th September from 17.00 - 19.00.