KIRSTINE ROEPSTORFF
Kirstine Roepstorff’s works turns dominant art traditions upside down, creating new narratives in her collages – layer by layer.
Kirstine Roepstorff, Forms of the Below, 2009. ARKEN Museum for Moderne Kunst, gift from Ny Carlsbergfondet 2015
Flowering vines and painted strips of fabric form layers on top of each other in Kirstine Roepstorff’s monumental Forms of the Below (2009). In the background, a group of acrobats turn seemingly effortless somersaults above colourful formations – might they represent a city of high-rise buildings with illuminated windows? The evocative narrative is a collage composed of photocopies and textile scraps, neatly cut out and placed with precision. The overall aesthetic is simultaneously cluttered and elegant, powerful and fragile.
Feminist collage narrative
The materials used in Roepstorff’s collage differ from the typical art media – paintings and sculptures – that have dominated the Western art tradition. Textiles and paper cut-outs are more generally linked to crafts and women’s pursuits than to art and fine culture. By using such materials, Kirstine Roepstorff forges a connection between traditional craftsmanship and feminist art. The materials already contain inherent narratives and messages before they are activated in the work’s pictorial narrative.
About Kirstine Roepstorff
Kirstine Roepstorff is particularly well known for her collages, in which she uses materials such as textiles, photocopies, metal, wood and paper. She often incorporates images from news media that visualise power relations or deal with foundered political ideas. As the original material is processed in her collages, this gives rise to new dialogues about the hierarchies of art and the changing meanings of symbols. In recent years, Roepstorff has also begun working with sculpture and installations which create physically engaging experiences.
Born 1972. Lives and works in Denmark
Educated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, in 1994-2001, and Rutgers University, Mason School of Fine Art (MFA), USA, in 2000.
Together with fellow artists Åsa Sonjasdotter, Marika Seidler and Andrea Creutz, Roepstorff formed the group Kvinder på Værtshus in 1997, jointly arranging exhibitions and activist happenings.
Received the Eckersberg Medal in 2014.
Represented Denmark at the Venice Biennale in 2017 with the exhibition influenza. theatre of glowing darkness.
SEE MORE PIECES IN ARKENs COLLECTION
WOLFGANG TILLMANS
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SARAH LUCAS
How can to two twisted beer cans be compared to the male sexual organs? In Sarah Lucas’s humorous works, she challenges the associations we often ascribe to the gendered body.
OLAFUR ELIASSON
Have you ever swung your way through a molecule? You can in Olafur Eliasson’s outdoor sculpture, which mixes art with architecture and play.
LEA PORSAGER
Lea Porsager’s world invites you to embark on an erotic expedition far away from rationality – and right into your ear.