Guest Stars

Nanna Lysholt Hansen & Esme Chapman Jones

1-12 June 2016: Exhibition (Thurs-Friday 12-15 & Sat-Sunday 13-16 - or by appointment)

1 June 17-20: Opening

5 June kl. 13-16: Live Performance Nanna Lysholt Hansen - Study for Ebba, 2016, Artist talk: Esme Chapman Jones, Nanna Lysholt Hansen, Book signing: Nanna Lysholt Hansen-Dear Mary (Memories of the Future) Logbook

The exhibition Guest Stars presents works by Esme Chapman Jones and Nanna Lysholt Hansen. In their works the two artists reference women’s position in photographic history and cinema.

Nanna Lysholt Hansen’s work can be experienced both as live performance or through hybrid technological forms. Her works are often characterised by situations where the body, the artist’s own, is in direct dialogue with the surrounding architectural space.
In the exhibition Nanna Lysholt Hansen will present works and sketches relating to her project Dear Mary, 2012-ongoing. The project is based on the life and works of Danish photographer Mary Willumsen (1884-1961). At the beginning of the last century Willumsen photographed naked and partially naked women; working anonymously and on the fringes of the pornography laws of the time.
Through live performance and pinhole photography on both metal and paper, Nanna Lysholt Hansen has rewritten the story of Mary Willumsen, placing her somewhere between the past, present and future and where fact and fiction merge. Parts of the project have previously been show at Ringsted Galleriet (2014), Fotografisk Center (2015) and Skovsnogen Artspace (2015). In Guest Stars Lysholt Hansen will present material not previously exhibited. The artist will also be performing a new performance piece: Study for Ebba, 2016. Her artist book Nanna Lysholt Hansen – Dear Mary (Memories of the Future) Logbook, published by Forlaget Fotografisk Center, 2015, will be on sale for a special price during the exhibition.

Esme Chapman Jones’ current work deals with Hollywood both past and present and its affects on society: How our experience of everyday life is affected by what we are presented with on the screen. She is interested in the points at which Hollywood fantasies intersect with, blur and influence ‘real life’. Chapman Jones’ work is concerned with with both cinematic history and celebrity culture of the present day, using digital and analogue media in parallel.
In the exhibition Guest Stars, Chapman Jones will present Pink Dress, 2015-16; a film projected onto the wall of a looping scene from the film To Catch a Thief (1955, Alfred Hitchcock). In the scene the same extra walks past in the same direction twice. Her distinctive pink dress, which brings to light a continuity error in the film, has been replicated for this work and accompanies the projection. The work considers the visual props that exist around the actors and their subsequent value: the extent to which they succeed and, in this case, fail to create and perform a consistent reality.
The show will also present her work Mia Farrow, 2015-16: text on a light box accompanied by a projection of a re-photographed press image of Mia Farrow getting her hair cut for the film Rosemary’s Baby (1968, Roman Polanski). This work looks at how cinema negotiates reality and fiction. The behind-the-scenes image highlights a break away from, or rupture of, the fictional narrative of the film.

The exhibition is part of Copenhagen Photo Festival

http://copenhagenphotofestival.com/

http://www.nannalysholt.dk/

http://www.esmechapmanjones.com/

Guest Stars is kindly supported by The Danish Arts Council and Copenhagen City Arts Council.

_______________________DANSK_______________________________________

Esme Chapman Jones og Nanna Lysholt Hansen arbejder på forskellige vis med referencer til kvinders position i filmens og fotografiets historie.

Nanna Lysholt Hansens værker kan opleves live eller som de manifesterer sig i installationer af medieret materiale og hybride teknologiske former. Værkerne har ofte karakter af situationer hvor en krop – kunstnerens egen – indgår i et direkte forhold til det omgivende, arkitektoniske rum.
På udstillingen Guest Stars præsenterer Nanna Lysholt Hansen materiale fra projektet Dear Mary (2012-fortsat). Projektet tager udgangspunkt i den danske fotograf Mary Willumsens (1884-1961) liv og værker. Mary Willumsen fotograferede i starten af forrige århundrede afklædte og halvnøgne kvinder og arbejdede anonymt på kanten af datidens pornografilove. Igennem live performance og pinhole fotografi genskriver Nanna Lysholt Hansen historien om Mary Willumsen.
Dele af projektet Dear Mary er tidligere blevet vist på blandt andet Ringsted Galleriet (2014), Fotografisk Center (2015) og på Skovsnogen Artspace (2015-fortsat). På udstillingen Guest Stars i NLHspace præsenterer hun fotografisk materiale, som ikke har været udstillet før samt en ny live performance: Study for Ebba, 2016. Kunstnerbogen Nanna Lysholt Hansen–Dear Mary (Memories of the Future) Logbook, udgivet af Forlaget Fotografisk Center, 2015, sælges til særpris i forbindelse med udstillingen.

Esme Chapman Jones’ arbejde omhandler Hollywoods affekt på samfundet både i fortiden og nutiden: Hvordan vores oplevelse af hverdagen er farvet af det, vi præsenteres for på skærmen. Hun er interesseret i steder hvor Hollywoods fantasier mødes med, udvisker og influerer ‘den virkelig verden’. Chapman Jones’ arbejder relaterer sig til både filmhistorie og samtidens ‘celebrity’-kultur, ved brug af både digitale og analoge medier i parallel.
På udstillingen Guest Stars præsenterer Chapman Jones Pink Dress, 2015-16, en kort gentaget sekvens fra filmen To Catch a Thief (1955, Alfred Hitchcock), fremvist på en væg. I scenen går den samme statist forbi i samme retning to gange. Hendes fremtrædende lyserød kjole, der afslører en kontinuitetsfejl i filmen, er blevet rekonstrueret til dette værk og underbygger fremvisningen. Værket betragter de visuelle rekvisitter, som eksisterer omkring skuespillerne og deres efterfølgende værdi; omfanget hvormed de lykkes, og i dette tilfælde mislykkes, i at skabe og udføre en konsistent virkelighed.
Udstillingen præsenterer også hendes værk Mia Farrow, 2015-16; en lyskasse med tekst er sat sammen med en fremvisning af et affotograferet pressefoto af Mia Farrow, der får klippet sit hår til filmen Rosemary’s Baby (1968, Roman Polanski). Værket undersøger hvordan filmkunsten diskuterer virkelighed og fiktion. Billedet fra ‘bag om scenen’ viser et afbræk fra eller brud af den fiktive fortælling af filmen.

Udstillingen er del af Copenhagen Photo Festival

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