Torben Ebbesen

In old times, the arts made a virtue out of bringing order to chaos. Nature was chaotic. Reality and its institutions were likewise chaotic. In this vast chaos, humans regarded themselves as the organizing factor. Statesmen created political stability. Scientists organized and systematized nature and believed they could find rules for order and nature within the very material they sought to bring order to. And they were happy with their findings.

Theologians brought order to our belief in the afterlife. And the artists did the final piece of work. They placed the seen and the experienced into a world of beauty, which was precisely order, design, and harmony. And they believed in the rule-based nature of this beauty. Their works became models for the emotional organization of reality.

Landscapes were planned and ordered according to nature's own principles, but the landscapes were restrained, regulated, and manipulated. Landscape painters found particularly orderly motifs. And those they painted. And we, who saw their paintings, believed in them, believed that nature looked like that. Majestic mountains, hierarchically arranged in alternation of dominance and subordination. And everything became so clear and beautiful.

Or images of "where the road bends." Idyllic scenes of incomparably gentle beauty, where wandering hens are depicted precisely where they fit best. Reddish-brown and white focal points in a beautifully ordered whole. Accents that create life, order, and harmony. And as a result, we also organized our world according to the artists' guidance.

We displaced the stench, the indecent, the ugly, and the brutal. And we still do. We cling to the old art, where order, structure, calm, and harmony are all or nothing. But it no longer fits. There is no room for the great ideals, for beauty anymore. And one reaches a point where one cannot create images anymore. Because one, if one is to be honest, is no longer capable of it.

Some artists, nonetheless, continue to do so. And to preserve their integrity, they instead raise questions. They use their works to put themselves on trial. Allow the artwork to turn inward against itself instead of deceiving. One of these artists is Torben Ebbesen.

Excerpt from the text "Untitled," 1977–87.

Jørn Otto Hansen, 1987.

Reviews

ART - WORTH SEEING

Torben Ebbesen's works are both concrete and poetic. They are worth seeing.

TORBEN EBBESEN. Solo exhibition, Stalke Gallery, Admiralgade 22, Copenhagen.

Until February 14, 1988.

Torben Ebbesen's exhibition in Stalke Gallery's underground space demands effort. The works do not meet the viewer halfway, and it's easy to overlook them at first glance. They create a sense of distance, but after some time, they suddenly offer an experience that lies both beyond the immediate concrete impression of the "objects" and outside of any straightforward narrative.

Perhaps this is best understood through the observation that Torben Ebbesen's visual language is not particularly "Danish." The Danish school of art is simple. We tend to appreciate works with clear messages, but not those that are truly imaginative. Modern Danish art often relies on symbols and costumes presented in a simple manner. When some of our best painters have tightened their grip on this language, the works create a closed circuit and reflect traits inherited from two to three earlier generations.

RARE QUALITY

The same foreign complexity and weight can be seen in Torben Ebbesen's forms. This makes it worthwhile to take your time with them. His art also exhibits a great sense of clean and simple lines.

The text at the entrance is glued together with pieces of blue graph paper, crossed by lines and numbers that create a simple and decorative system. It can be interpreted as a small explosion (splash): a stone thrown into water, creating ripples. At the same time, this small piece represents a way of working in which the minimal idea is permanent and continuous. The stone maintains its distinctive structure but has been given different, contrasting interpretations. The rest of the exhibition follows the same system, divided into a series of sculptures.

CONCRETE AND POETIC

The works are both concrete and poetic, which makes this exhibition particularly interesting. A recurring theme is Torben Ebbesen's clear sense of material purity. Ebbesen is also poetic, combining a freer, more open system.

MOVING

The exhibition at Stalke Gallery includes several split sculptures. At the top of the entrance staircase, there are two works presented together, where one is a photograph and the other is a plaster relief.

The original is based on a photograph of a steel beam, transformed into a plaster relief. Here the two-dimensional image creates a form that is almost like a painting. The plaster lies in layers, much like chalk lines on white paper.

There is almost a quantum leap between the two works, along with an essential understanding that they would lose their impact if one were missing.

This visual interplay is characteristic of Torben Ebbesen's work at its best.

NOTE

Stalke Gallery and the Stalke Project (larger space in Nørrebro District) are new players in the developing Copenhagen gallery scene. They emphasize a theoretical approach and focus on international contemporary art. The choice of artists is deliberate. Torben Ebbesen recently represented Denmark at an exhibition in Tokyo alongside Per Kirkeby. Another Stalke artist, Margrethe Sørensen, has represented Denmark at the São Paulo Biennial in Brazil and has had exhibitions in the USA.

The gallery is not just another player in the conceptual art scene. There is a clear improvement in Copenhagen's art offerings through Stalke, as the gallery keeps some distance from the commercially driven tendencies often seen elsewhere.

Julie Harboe/ Det Frie Aktuelt. 2.2.1988

The Illusion and the Transformation

Torben Ebbesen plays on multiple levels with sensitivity and humor in his works at Stalke Galleri in Copenhagen

Art: Objects by Torben Ebbesen (Stalke Galleri, Admiraalgade 22, until February 25).

The illusion of materials and the motif's transformation are some of the things that are central in Torben Ebbesen's exhibitions at Stalke Galleri.

All the exhibited objects are wall objects in gold and white tones. The wall objects are made of some of the most fascinating materials, such as glass and metal, which, through their aesthetic, make up the basis of the works. The duality and lightness inherent in the materials become particularly clear in the double wall objects.

It is a collage where photographs and objects are alternated, and surfaces in black/white contrast. The straightforward motif can be an organic, waving surface or waterdrops in an organic mass.

Magnets play a special role. Small magnets attract and lift parts of the material, attaching them to the work in the image. Layers. They change the idea of the "original" into a copy - a copy that demands just as much as the original. Maybe more so, because it defines the work. But apart from possible speculation about the idea, it exudes a sensitive and fine aesthetic in the materials and the interplay of colors.

One characteristic feature of the wall objects is the color spilling out beyond the frame or into the room. A large wall object alternates between the concrete and the floating, alternating in planes and layers, where the colors move over the three planes and beyond, broken by a coffee pot and a cluster of magnets. Ice flowers are not glass but silicone molded in a sophisticated material.

The material illusion and anti-aesthetic emerge in aesthetic duality and nostalgia.

Torben Ebbesen plays on multiple levels - a game that is light and easy to grasp, but also has an edge. The sensitivity and humor in the anti-aesthetic balances between the humorous and the serious with simplicity and conceptual clarity in the works' diverse content.

Ann L. Sørensen

Thursday, February 11, 1988
Frederiksborg Amts Avis

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