Artists: Iain Ball, Tue Greenfort, Marguerite Humeau, Parker Ito, Katja Novitskova, Eduardo Terrazas, Anne de Vries
Exhibition title: Welcome Too Late
Curated by: Toke Lykkeberg
Venue: Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark
Date: March 18 – May 28, 2017
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Kunsthal Charlottenborg
While everything from climate change to techno-scientific developments is marked by acceleration and exponential growth, our current moment in time is increasingly hard to grasp. As the world changes at high pace, the present rapidly shrinks. There is a sentiment that the future at ever-greater speed undercuts the present; and that the present at ever- greater speed recedes into the past.
In this scenario, artists and documentarians face a new challenge. Those traditionally charged with depicting the world need to engage in this task, all the while the world and our knowledge about it transform into something else. The artists in this exhibition all deal with this challenge in various ways. Instead of trying to zoom in on and keep up with time, there is a tendency to zoom out. Art and film are less and less ‘contemporary’, i.e. with time, and more and more ‘extemporary’, i.e. out of time.
The present is not grasped as a moment, but as part of a grand continuum of universal and natural history. The so-called ‘end of the grand narratives’ is now making room for even bigger, more dizzying narratives that do not stick to a linear timeline. This exhibition does not focus on the current state of the world, but rather its course.
Welcome Too Late unfolds as a small journey from our intense present toward some ethereal time and space beyond it. The first gallery is haunted by the spirit of the French impressionist painter Claude Monet, who – at the turn of the last century – was chasing the present, while painting his unruly garden: “I am just running after nature without being able to catch her up”. The following galleries present works that exit the present much like the author H.G. Wells imagined it. In his science fiction novel The Time Machine from 1895, he suggested that man could “move about in time” in the manner a balloon defies gravity.
Iain Ball, (Rare Earth Sculptures) Terbium, 2015. Raw bay mud, printed plastic, Red Lizard Mustika Pearl – type C1 (IND33), CNC milled aluminum, stainless steel, Vibe-Tribe troll 2.0 10W Bluetooth Vibration resonance speaker, GOCH – Terbium Energy Catalyst (QNSOO1) Quantum Natives / Energy Pangea, Terbium Dark Psy Energy Pack, aluminum, water. Installation view, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2017. Photo by Anders Sune Berg
Welcome Too Late, 2017, installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Welcome Too Late, 2017, installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Anne de Vries, Forecast, 2011. HD video 5.04 min. Installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2017. Photography by Anders Sune Berg
Katja Novitskova, Expansion Curves (fire worship, purple horns), 2016. Digital print on pet-g, digital print on aluminum dibond, plexiglass. Installation view, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2017. Photo by Anders Sune Berg.
Marguerite Humeau, Gisant 1, 2016. Polystyrene, fibreglass, resin, white paint, acrylic parts, latex, nylon, speaker, hardware, sound, powder-coated metal stand. Installation view, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2017. Photo by Anders Sune Berg
Marguerite Humeau, Gisant 1, 2016. Polystyrene, fibreglass, resin, white paint, acrylic parts, latex, nylon, speaker, hardware, sound, powder-coated metal stand. Installation view, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2017. Photo by Anders Sune Berg
Marguerite Humeau, Gisant 1, 2016. Polystyrene, fibreglass, resin, white paint, acrylic parts, latex, nylon, speaker, hardware, sound, powder-coated metal stand. Installation view, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2017. Photo by Anders Sune Berg
Welcome Too Late, 2017, installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Eduardo Terrazas, Parteaguas (Turning Point), 1975-2013. Digital print. Installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2017. Photography by Anders Sune Berg
Eduardo Terrazas, Exponential Growth, 2014. Video 3:12 min. Installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2017. Photography by Anders Sune Berg
Eduardo Terrazas, Exponential Growth, 2014. Video 3:12 min. Installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2017. Photography by Anders Sune Berg
Eduardo Terrazas, Exponential Growth, 2014. Video 3:12 min. Installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2017. Photography by Anders Sune Berg
Welcome Too Late, 2017, installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Welcome Too Late, 2017, installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Parker Ito, Western Exterminator/Kernel Kleenup/Little Man/Pesterminator, 2013-2015. (Automotive violet with parts) bronze, anodized automotive parts, automotive paint, nickel plating, hanging hardware. Installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2017. Photography by Anders Sune Berg
Parker Ito, Western Exterminator/Kernel Kleenup/Little Man/Pesterminator, 2013-2015. (Automotive violet with parts) bronze, anodized automotive parts, automotive paint, nickel plating, hanging hardware. Installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2017. Photography by Anders Sune Berg
Parker Ito, Western Exterminator/Kernel Kleenup/Little Man/Pesterminator, 2013-2015. (Automotive violet with parts) bronze, anodized automotive parts, automotive paint, nickel plating, hanging hardware. Installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2017. Photography by Anders Sune Berg
Welcome Too Late, 2017, installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Welcome Too Late, 2017, installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Welcome Too Late, 2017, installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Welcome Too Late, 2017, installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Tue Greenfort, EQUILIBRIUM, 2011-2017. Different translations and editions of the book ‘The Limits to Growth’ (1972), plexiglas, wire. Installation view from Kunsthal Charlottenborg 2017. Photography by Anders Sune Berg
D.H. Meadows, D.L. Meadows, J. Randers, W.W. Behrens III ‘The Limits to Growth’, 1972