Josephine Baltzersen og Line Finderup

(English translation below)

GROWING

Udstillingen, GROWING, undersøger ordet “produktion”. Et billede produceres. En krop reproduceres. En medicinsk teknologi blander sig i en biologisk proces. En digital model bliver til et fysisk objekt. I værkerne, som Line Finderup og Josephine Baltzersen skaber sammen, må en kunstnerisk idé passere gennem en anden kunstners hånd.

I fællesværkerne møder Baltzersens udskårne og støbte relief Finderups airbrushmaleri. Motiver udvikles mellem tegning og digital 3D-skitsering, før billedet fordeles mellem de to teknikker. Samarbejdet søger ikke mod et fælles udtryk, hvor forskellene forsvinder. Tværtimod søges der efter en balance, hvor de kan sameksistere. Materialerne, og dermed kunstnernes hænder, forbliver synlige. At arbejde sammen bliver en øvelse i overdragelse, at afgive kontrol over en del af billedet og tillade et andet menneske at blande sig i noget, man selv har været med til at skabe. Der må være tilstrækkelig nærhed til, at værket kan hænge sammen, og tilstrækkelig forskel til, at samarbejdet har en grund til at eksistere.

Denne fordeling af kontrol løber gennem udstillingen på flere måder. Fertilitetsbehandling sætter kroppen under lup, både biologisk og teknologisk. Den scannes, måles og medicineres. De kliniske processer organiseres gennem doseringer, aftaler og biologiske vinduer. Det intime og det kliniske vikles ind i hinanden, og privat tid underlægges en administration, der midlertidigt kan overskygge næsten alt andet. Teknologien kan skabe billeder, data og betingelser for en biologisk proces, men den kan ikke kontrollere dens udfald.

I værkerne “Week ten”, “Week seventeen”, “Week thirty-four” og “Week thirty-nine” bruges jordbær, avocado, broccoli og vandmelon som mål for den udvikling, der foregår inde i kroppen og derfor er vanskelig at se.

En biologisk proces oversættes til noget genkendeligt, håndgribeligt og næsten absurd konkret. Her bliver sammenligningen holdt, de små reliefhænder griber, støtter og omslutter frugterne. Målingen bliver samtidig en fysisk relation mellem hånd, krop og målestok.

Videoværket “Growing” introducerer endnu en tolkning af produktion; simulationen. En personlig erindring om et medicinsk ultralydsbillede genskabes som en farverig, gamificeret 3D-animation på LED-paneler. En kompleks proces i kroppen er blevet til et medicinsk scanningsbillede, siden erindring og nu en digital simulation. Det kliniske blik erstattes af et legende billedsprog lånt fra spillets verden, men uden spillets klassiske funktioner. Animationen når ingen afslutning, den vender tilbage til begyndelsen.

Med værket “Heavy lifting” føres spørgsmålet om produktion tilbage gennem en langt ældre kunsthistorie. Den meterhøje vase er 3D-printet i semi-transparent filament med figurer organiseret omkring dens volumen. Som billedbærende form har vasen gennem årtusinder både været beholder og fortællende overflade. Den rummer, bærer, opbevarer og transporterer mens dens yderside bærer fortællinger. I værket møder dette antikke formsprog en nutidig teknologi, hvor objektet bygges op lag for lag fra den digitale model.

At bære får dermed flere betydninger. Vasen bærer figurerne. Materialet bærer formen. Kroppe bærer andre kroppe. Og et værk kan bære spor af mere end én kunstners intention. Forældreskabet findes i denne struktur uden at være udstillingens facit. Det skærper snarere et vilkår, som allerede findes i samarbejdet; noget, man i fælleskab er dybt involveret i at skabe, bliver aldrig fuldstændig ens eget eller fuldstændig underlagt ens kontrol.

Udstillingen, GROWING, handler i den forstand ikke kun om vækst, men om produktion som en proces af overdragelser. Mellem kunstnere og materialer, mellem biologiske og teknologiske processer, mellem kroppe og mellem forskellige grader af kontrol. Noget sættes i gang, bearbejdes og gives videre.

The exhibition “GROWING” explores the word “production”. An image is produced. A body is reproduced. Medical technology intervenes in a biological process. A digital model becomes a physical object. In the works which Line Finderup and Josephine Baltzersen creates together, an artistic idea must pass through the hands of another artist.

In these collaborative works, Baltzersen’s carved and cast reliefs meet Finderup’s airbrush painting. Motifs are developed through a combination of drawing and digital 3D sketching before the image is distributed between the two techniques. The collaboration does not aim for a unified expression where differences vanish. On the contrary, the aim is to find a balance where they can coexist. The materials – and thus the artists’ hands – remain visible. Working together becomes an exercise in tranferral: relinquishing control over part of the image and allowing another person to intervene in something one has helped create. There must be sufficient proximity for the work to stay cohesive and sufficient difference for collaboration to have a reason to exist.

This distribution of control runs through the exhibition in various ways. Fertility treatment places the body under the microscope, both biologically and technologically. It is scanned, measured, and medicated. Clinical processes are structured around dosages, appointments, and biological windows. The intimate and the clinical become intertwined, and private time is subjected to a form of administration that can temporarily overshadow almost everything else. Technology can generate images, data, and the conditions for a biological process, but it cannot control the outcome.

In the works “Week ten”, “Week seventeen”, “Week thirty-four”, and “Week thirty-nine”, strawberries, avocados, broccoli, and watermelons serve as benchmarks for the development happening inside the body – a process otherwise difficult to see.

A biological process is translated into something recognizable, tangible, and almost absurdly concrete. The comparison is sustained as small relief-style hands grasp, support, and cradle the fruit. The act of measurement thus becomes a physical relationship between hand, body, and scale.

The video work “Growing” introduces yet another interpretation of production: simulation. A personal memory of a medical ultrasound image is recreated as a colorful, gamified 3D animation on LED panels. A complex bodily process has transformed from a medical scan into a memory, and now into a digital simulation. The clinical gaze is replaced by playful imagery borrowed from the world of gaming, yet stripped of the game’s classic functions; the animation never reaches a conclusion, instead looping back to the beginning.

With the work “Heavy lifting”, the question of production is traced back through a much older art history. The vase—standing a meter tall—is 3D-printed using semi-transparent filament, with figures arranged around its volume. As a vessel for imagery, the vase has served for millennia as both a container and a narrative surface; it holds, carries, stores, and transports, while its exterior bears stories. In this work, that ancient formal language meets contemporary technology, with the object built up layer by layer from a digital model.

The concept of carrying thus takes on multiple meanings. The vase carries the figures. The material carries the form. Bodies carry other bodies. And an artwork can carry traces of more than one artist’s intention. Parenthood is present within this structure, without serving as the exhibition’s definitive answer. Rather, it intensifies a condition already inherent in the collaboration: something created through a joint effort never becomes entirely one’s own or fully subject to one’s control.

In this sense, the exhibition “GROWING” is not just about growth, but about production as a process of handing over—between artists and materials, between biological and technological processes, between bodies, and between varying degrees of control. Something is set in motion, worked upon, and passed on.

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