7/2/2003
Kirsten Justesen
Kunstmuseet Brundlund Slot, Aabenraa
A general element in Kirsten Justesen's work is the staged, photographic tableau , where the living female body forms part of the sculptural expression. Kirsten Justesen often works in series, arranged from various thematic angles. The most striking series is Meltingtime, which Kirsten Justesen has been working with since 1980 and installed at 10 different art scenes at home and abroad.
MELTINGTIME#11
A general element in Kirsten Justesen's work is the staged, photographic tableau , where the living
female body forms part of the sculptural expression. Kirsten Justesen often works in series, arranged
from various thematic angles.
The most striking series is MELTINGTIME , which Kirsten Justesen
has been working with since 1980 and installed at 10 different art scenes at home and abroad.
MELTINGTIME # 11 opens on February 8, 2003 , as the latest overall installation on the theme as a
result of continuous investigations of sculptural being. The exhibition consists of new objects of ice ;
hands , feet , ice-staves, ice- dress and letters of ice.
In addition to this photographic pictures of female figures in various ice- formations are shown . The
exhibition is constructed as an overall installation , which occupies the 9 exhibition- rooms of the
castle and part of the park.
During opening hours the ice- objects will start a melting -process, lasting till closing time. The ice-
sculptures will absorb the heat, take possession of the room and begin a metamorphosis. In Kirsten
Justesen's ice- objects the traditional sculpture , which you can walk around , is put on the same
footing as the installation, which you can walk into, and the tangible is combined with the abstract. In
the works of art the melting- phenomenon is a metaphor for transformation and metamorphosis , in
which one substance is changed from solid form into liquid form by supplying heat. The disappearing
ice - objects of the exhibition refer to the variability and transitoriness of the world and in this way they
contrast directly with the traditional sculptural monument, which claims ideal constancy and
indestructibility. In the photos the melting process and the metamorphosis are maintained in the
permanent, but ambiguous statements, facing the spectator.
The sculptress Kirsten Justesen , born in 1943 and educated at the Academy of Arts on Funen and the
Royal Academy of Arts in Copenhagen, has assumed a central position in Danish art since the
beginning of the 60's.She has been experimenting with the sculptural and three- dimensional
expressions in many different media and matters and worked with the conceptual- , processual ,- and
body- art genres.
In connection with the exhibition a book on Kirsten Justesen's MELTINGTIMES will be published
and here it will be possible to read about her 10 other presentations as well as the latest at the Art
Museum Brundlund Castle in Aabenraa. The 200-page-book is commissioned to Gyldendal
Publishers and may be ordered at the publishers or at the Art Museum Brundlund Castle.
MELTINGTIME # 11 is shown at the Art Museum Brundlund Castle form February 8 till March 30,
2003 and will be shown at the Art Museum Kastrupgaardssamlingen in 2004.
Curator Katrine Kampe
Opening 8 February 2003 at 14.00
Image: ICE PEDESTAL, FORMATION #2 out of 7, 2000
Pedestal 60 x 60 x 60 cm. Ice, body, non-skid ice gloves, thermo boots
Digital print 1:1 on canvas (200 x 200 cm) ed. 7, variable dimensions
Kunstmuseet Brundlund Slot / The Art Museum Brundlund Castle
DK-6200 Aabenraa, Denmark