Review

Set Pieces and Supporting Parts

Marianne Hesselbjerg, Finn Reinbothe, Ole Broager

Through Stalke Gallery's large window, you see something unusual, strange, peculiar. A burial urn in snow, perhaps? The result of a cup final in igloo-building? Supported by chipboard, branches, and wood debris, a collection of white plaster domes rises, two of them topped with a blue and a neon-red trophy, respectively.

This is Ole Broager’s peculiar introduction — “Soon we will be gone” — to the gallery’s group exhibition. Then Marianne Hesselbjerg takes over with a fur-covered cube and part of a flat entirety on the floor. But at the back, one continuously notices the exhibition’s focal point.

It is Finn Reinbothe’s three powerful pictures made of mixed materials, each composed of four rectangles into a square with a hole in the middle. On the end wall, a tomato-red panel, where color and form show their deep unity. The red square is filled with red carpet scraps, while its neighbor’s grand mosaic pattern in brown, ochre, and gray is composed of soft and hard masonite. The third square consists of Indian block printing and plastic tiles with painted circles.

In the basement, Finn Reinbothe repeats the square constructions’ pattern in one of his secure travel notes on fragments of a suitcase. Marianne Hesselbjerg remains equally composed with an open playpen, while Ole Broager displays woodcuts on gift wrap and has also placed an enormous plaster rosary over a wooden ship.

Information 23.5.1990

White-hot Brain Bark

MARIANNE HESSELBJERG, FINN REINBOTHE AND OLE BROAGER.

The brain bark becomes white-hot with effort almost every time you step into Galleri Stalke—if you feel you need to understand, that is.

But you can also just look and feel. Because there is something smooth and something fuzzy. This time lacquered, carpet-covered, or even long-haired. So there is actually something that eases the pressure on the brain. All three artists have a drawer full of humor to pull from.

Marianne Hesselbjerg, who once dedicated an Irma bag and has completed decoration tasks for Odense Police Headquarters, is probably the one who surprises the most at the exhibition with her lacquered maple board on the floor and her animalistic long-haired block titled Blår (Blue). She confronts us with themes of enchantment through her speculative art.

Finn Reinbothe constructs balanced wholes with recurring blind holes. Depending on the eyes observing, it can either be a sign of possibilities or the opposite. His "travel notes," based on suitcase pockets and lids as well as writing surfaces, are almost touching in their absurdity.

At the entrance, Ole Broager greets visitors, no less provocative with neon colors and kitsch elements. The composite sculpture reveals what can be perceived as layers of the mind. From the sea of the subconscious, energy rises to conscious processing.

The three artists tear off fragments of everyday reality, hold them at arm's length, and weave new, distanced elements into them. There is no doubt that they are experimenters of the contemporary spirit.

Eva Pohl/Berlingske

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