Erik A. Frandsen
Billeder
25.10.07 - 15.12.07
Using the un-pretentious title ’Billeder’ (Images) Erik A. Frandsen exhibits new paintings in extra large format (290 x 220 cm.) at Galleri Faurschou.
The exhibition title indicates a random juxtaposition of works. At first glance, the paintings differ in motives; i.e. vases in front of a Boney M mirror from the 70’s, two magpies, a bouquet of flowers on a table top in a Copenhagen apartment, a spray, a facade of the anarchists’ meeting room in Carrara, Italy, flowers on a white lace tablecloth and the painting of nothing but a plate of fruits.
However, the common theme in these varied motives is the absence. The paintings almost resound of absence and silence. The vases in front of the Boney M mirror are empty, the magpies are taxidermised, the apartment is empty, the spray is from Sachsen-Hausen and surrounded by blackness. The bouquet of flowers on the white tablecloth contains the silence and power of the Catholic Church, and the plate of fruits, with its fluorescent yellow background, is almost sickening to look at.
The air remains still in these images. Erik A. Frandsen has once again painted ‘still lives’centering around death as the fundamental undertone. All objects are taken from their original context and are now presented to us as symbols, both beautiful and silent. They are striking, alarming and incredibly effective in this magnitude.
‘Billeder’ is a conceptual exhibition, where each work alone is powerful, yet when viewed in relation to the other works from the exhibition the images are given another dimension. The exhibition involves the viewer, yet in a different manner than Frandsen’s previously stainless steel flowers, where the viewer was confronted with oneself and ones own mortality in the mirror polished steel. ‘Billeder’ is a visual knock-out and a reality check that the viewer is otherwise enlightened and encouraged by, not least due to the physical effect of viewing these large format paintings.