MIKKEL CARL - too sexy for my skin
(13.01.2012 – 11.02.2012)
It's a great pleasure to present Mikkel Carl’s first solo exhibition at HENNINGSEN gallery. The physical as well as the conceptual fulcrum of this exhibition is modulE, a system of shelving units, desks, and end tables designed by the artist. As a genuine take on the Functionalist vision of serial and modular furniture, modulE may in fact be extended and varied ad infinitum. In this exhibition the work simultaneously functions as a simple prototype, actual office furniture, and as a kind of display enabling the presentation of a number of art objects the meaning of which becomes apparent as part of this context.
Acknowledging the fact that institutional critique has won a pyrrhic victory Mikkel Carl sees the newly created office environment as an opportunity to place the gallerist, yours truly, and my daily doings right in the middle of his exhibition. An exorcising change in scenery much emphasised by the work A thing is a hole in the thing it is not establishing a hitherto unseen connection between the gallery's two exhibition rooms. Thus, the artist employs the now all too obvious commercial context to set the stage for a meta-presentation of his other new works.
In general, Mikkel Carl has set out to reprogram some of the humdrum phenomena constituting everyday life. Suddenly they appear instead as multivalent cultural signs bearers. This is the case with, for instance, the work eponymous to the exhibition: too sexy for my skin is merely a lid from an Alexander McQueen shoebox – the arty designer committing suicide nearly two years ago – but put up on the wall it’s an almost perfect imitation of a painting. Several of the other exhibited objects subtly involve the stuff that physically keeps the art institution going. In my opinion comprises a battered, old hammer and a Post-it note regarding its hoped-for return to Art Copenhagen – both items found at the office of the artists-run gallery IMO. And on the wall above the gallery desk you’ll find Impression, consisting solely of a so-called dog blanket put on a stretcher. This blanket, used to wrap around artworks during transport, comes straight from the back of a van belonging to an international art shipping company.
too sexy for my skin is a multifaceted exhibition, utilizing all kinds of things in a no-nonsense game about the art object, the impact of various materials, titles, and the question of context. How is it possible for art to create any new meaning considering the vast significance of everything else? Cash or card?
Andreas Henningsen
The exhibition is supported by The Danish Arts Council
