Cover: Under the Cover

From the 3rd June until Sunday, 8th June you have the opportunity to visit Malene Hartmann Rasmussen‘s exhibition ‘Nightcall’ –  a composition of recent work exploring the theme of the forest.

The forest as something that has captured our imagination for centuries whether it is in myths, fairytales, legends or as a child when we used to watch Walt Disney’s classics such as Snow White or Sleeping Beauty or later as adults David Lynch films such as ‘Blue Velvet’ : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQmm-uoIWnY

Image taken from disney.wikia.com

The forest acts as an important construct in contemporary culture, being the sinister backdrop for countless novels or  horror films: the place where the victim is chased, where the body is dumped, and where mysterious things happen. In all apperances, it is a place of danger, of adventure and magic.

Hartmann Rasmussen’s sculptures capture the forest in its most magical moment: the twilight – when the daylight and with it the sense of security fades and dark creatures emerge from their dense.

This is how she describes her work: “I work with mixed media sculpture, making and arranging multiple components into complex narrative tableaux of visual excess. The dialogue between the components, and the way one’s unconscious can direct the composition, interests me. 

I try to create a place beyond reality, a deceitful echo of the real world, that bends the perception of what is real. I want my work to look like a very skilled child could have made it, clumsy and elaborate at the same time. Initially the viewer may, mistakenly, be drawn to my figures thinking them to be toys; however closer examination reveals their rather darker narrative. They invite you into an absurd and surreal world where things are not what they seem… A frozen moment that indicates a story and a mood but at the same time is open for the viewer to filter their own references through, to make sense and contribute to the story themselves.”

Malene Hartmann Rasmussen works in the cross-aesthetic between art, design and crafts. Graduating from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, School of Design Bornholm and Royal College of Art in London, she now lives and works in London. She is represented in the Victoria & Albert Museum‘s collection in London where one of her works was included in the exhibition 1:1 Architects Build Small Spaces.