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KASPER SONNE
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Kasper Sonne News:
In 2009 Sonnes rst book will be released, generously supported
by the Danish Arts Council.
A hybrid between a classic representation of the artists work in
resent years and an artist book- entitled The End Is The Beginning
the book is designed by renowned graphic Studio RasmusKoch in close
collaboration with Sonne and edited by Jesper N. Jrgensen, an
independent curatorwith whom Sonne has worked closely for many
years.
Upcoming exhibitions
2009 Museo Sala Siqueiros, Mexico City, Mexico. Yet untitled.
Curated by Yutsil Cruz (solo)2009 LaViolaBank Gallery, New York,
US. Yet untitled. (solo)2009 V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark. Yet
untitled. (solo)2009 Pianissimo Gallery, Milan, Italy. When the
vacation is over for good, with Tobias Collierand Steve Van Den
Bosch
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More interested in the possibility of things than in their
actuality, artist Kasper Sonne questions the notionsof the real and
the articial, while probing the construction of meaning and our
collective memory. In theseries of works Maps of innite
possibilities Sonne deploys the use of a socially well established
symboland highly clichd motif, to fabricate what at rst seems to be
large scale photographs of a perfectlystar spangled night sky,
something Sonne terms the construction of conceptual poetics. On a
closerlook however, the photographs turn out to be sheets of blank
photo paper that Sonne exposed to directsunlight and then had
developed, a process that turns the photo paper pitch black. After
this subversionof day and night, light and dark, Sonne adorned each
photograph with tiny holes painstakingly cut outto reveal a mirror
behind the surface, causing each imaginary star to reect a mirror
image back uponthe spectator. Historically star charts were used to
navigate a rapidly expanding world, but since eachstar in Sonnes
works are the exact same size, perspective has deliberately been
abandoned, leaving
the innite as at as its image. Sonne often presents his audience
with places for contemplation as thespectator has to actively
inform the pieces with his or her own references and metaphors, in
order toread meaning out the work and gazing at Sonnes stars,
reluctantly realizing that no actual constellationsare present in
the photographs, the feeling that these maps of innite
possibilities might just lead younowhere, rather than somewhere,
slowly arises. And so Sonnes construction of illusory star
chartsoffers escape routes to an alternative reality or at least to
the realm of the spectators own imagination.
Maurice Bendrix
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The Geometry of Uncertainty
Through a simultaneous construction and deconstruction of
meaning, the reading of wellestablished signs and symbols are
deliberately obscured in the work of Kasper Sonne.Common signiers -
deployed to achieve instant recognition in the viewer in order to
createan autonomous entrance point to the works are manipulated to
reveal and expose ashift from the familiar, rendering the obvious
ambiguous and prolonging the process ofdecoding - something that
Sonne refers to as extending the narrative of the singularclich.
Much interested in dualities, Sonne often investigate, invent and
reinvent, words,phrases and objects that are capable of
representing oppositional stances.
For The Geometry of Uncertainty the artist had two regular
heptagons laser cut fromlarge sheets of aluminum and then painted
and machine-polished a high-gloss black bya professional car
painter. After being send to his studio, Sonne then cut lines on
thesehigh-nish industrially manufactured objects with a
screwdriver, connecting the sevensides of the heptagons to create
the geometrically form of each of the two possible
regularheptagrams - more commonly identied as seven-pointed
stars.
Geometry, being an ancient science part of mathematics, is
concerned with questionsof size, shape, and relative position of
gures and with properties of space and is thusa representation of
the build world, the logical and the known, and the heptagram
isoriginally a sign thereof. But throughout history this scientic
creation has also gained amuch different meaning. Appropriated by
various religious groupings, from Christianity toJudaism and occult
organizations like the Ordo Templi Orientis, the seven-pointed
staris also a representation of the unknown, the mystical and
magical. In many Christianreligions the heptagram is a symbol of
perfection - or God - and the seven days of creationand is believed
to ward of evil. Some pagan religions believe the heptagram to be
ofmagical power and the infamous occultist Aleister Crowley -
dubbed the wickedest manin the world used the heptagram as the star
of Babalon, a goddess found in the mysticalsystem Thelema,
established in 1904 from Crowleys writing of The Book of the Law.In
her most abstract form she represents the female sexual impulse and
the liberatedwoman, although she can also be identied with Mother
Earth, in her most fertile sense.At the same time, Crowley believed
that Babalon had an earthly aspect in the form of aspiritual ofce,
which could be lled by actual womenusually as a counterpart to his
ownidentication as To Mega Therion - The Great Beast.
From afar the lines cut by Sonne look quite precisely executed,
but up-close it becomesclear that this is not the case. Cutting
through the perfect surface of the heptagons witha screwdriver as
his tool - reminiscent of hard manual labor or perhaps even
vandalism- proves incontrollable by various imperfections. From
differences in depth and width ofthe lines, to the breaking of the
paint and small traces of slips of the hand, the otherwisesublime
fabrications are no longer awless. And so, in Sonnes work it is not
only themeaning of the heptagram itself that is uncertain, but also
the very outcome of its formalmaterialization.
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The Construction of Crisis
This is also the case in another series of work titled The
Construction of Crisis, inspiredby Ovids version of the ancient
Greek myth of Narcissus and Oscar Wildes famous novelThe picture of
Dorian Gray. In Ovids tale the handsome youth is punished by the
godsfor his vanity and the spurn of his admirer namely the young
nymph Echo - when madeto fall in love with his own reection in a
pool of water. Not daring to drink from it in fearof shattering
this image of absolute beauty, Narcissus eventually dies of thirst
gazing athis own mirror image. In Wildes much later story the young
and beautiful Dorian Gray isdoomed by a similar self-obsession,
when his wish that the portrait painted of him growsold instead of
himself is granted. Plunging into extreme hedonism and cruelty,
Doriansportrait serves as a reminder of the effect that each act
has upon the soul, with each of theyoung mans sins being displayed
as a disgurement of his form or through a sign of aging.In the end
Dorian tries to destroy this evidence of his immorality, but ends
up destroyinghimself instead.
Ovids story is likely to have its roots in the old superstition
that the reection seen of onesself in water, was the reection of
ones soul and thus the subject to harm should anythinghappen to
damage the reection. The Romans, who were the rst to make glass
mirrors,later attributed the superstition of the seven years of bad
luck when breaking a mirror, totheir belief that life renewed
itself every seven years. This superstition - handed down inhistory
and still widely believed today laid the foundations for Sonnes
construction ofcrisis. After creating a mirror by laminating black
mirror foil on a piece of ordinary windowglass, Sonne then breaks
another piece of window glass with a hammer, before laminatingit on
top of the mirror. And so it is essentially only the top piece of
transparent glass that isbroken and not the host of reection. By
this manipulation - the construction of the illusionof a broken
mirror, one of the most exhausted of clichd images - Sonne
questions ournotions of belief, myth and superstition, as well as
our notions of art. With reference toNietzsches theory in The Birth
of Tragedy of the ancient dualism between two types ofaesthetic
experience, namely the Apollonian (identity, order, regularity, and
calm repose)and the Dionysian (intoxication, forgetfulness, chaos,
and the ecstatic dissolution of identityin the collective) Sonne
orchestrates a similar conict in his work through the deploymentof
tactics similar to both Conceptual Art of the 1960s (the highly
planned execution thatstems from a carefully conceived thought) and
early Expressionism in the 19th century
(the act of coincidence and carelessness). Dualities are ever
present in Sonnes work, beit in contradiction of terms, the
reduction of color to black and white, the hand made andthe
industrially produced or in this case the rendering of an act of
violence into somethingpoetic, destruction into beauty.
Stephen Dedalus
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History Is Optional
In the ongoing series of works, History Is Optional, Sonne
addresses the construction of history and (lost) memory,
morphingpast and present, old and new, then and now. Through a
re-contextualization of works from earlier stages of his own
artisticpractice and exhibition history - sometimes building small
gurative paintings into hermetically sealed boxes, or veiling
thedepictions on large canvases and photographs behind a monochrome
layer of paint - Sonne introduces a secret to theobject, a past now
hidden from the spectator, embedding each work in a strong sense of
longing and nostalgia, emotionsthat seem to be both typical and
consequential of life in a modern society. Each of the old works
however, can actively befreed and brought back - or forth - to
view, but not without the destruction of the new. And so each piece
in the History IsOptional series functions as a crystal image with
their - in the words of Vincent Honore on Gilles Deleuzes theory -
multiple,contradictory and simultaneous layers of history,
uctuating between actual and virtual, recording or dealing with
consciousor involuntary memories, confusing mental and physical
time. The crystal-image, which forms the cornerstone of
Deleuzestime-image, is a shot that fuses the pastness of the
recorded event with the presentness of its viewing. The
crystal-imageis the indivisible unity of the virtual image and the
actual image. The virtual image is subjective, in the past, and
recollected.The virtual image as pure recollection exists outside
of consciousness, in time. It is always somewhere in the temporal
past,but still alive and ready to be recalled by an actual image.
The actual image is objective, in the present, and perceived.The
crystal-image always lives at the limit of an indiscernible actual
and virtual image. The crystal-image shapes time asa constant
two-way mirror that splits the present into two heterogeneous
directions, one of which is launched towards thefuture while the
other falls into the past. Time consists of this split, and it is
... time, that we see in the crystal.
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Kasper Sonne Four letter words2006Neon, painted mdf, cords,
converters246 x 300 cm overallInstallation at V1 Gallery,
Copenhagen
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Kasper Sonne Nine letter words (Rubiks cube revisited)2007Pvc,
vinyl with print5.75 x 5.75 x 5.75 cm
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Kasper Sonne Trust Me Installation view2006Various
mediaDimensions variableInstallation at V1 Gallery, Copenhagen
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Kasper Sonne The point of being pointless (detail)2006Neon,
cords, converter, found objects, thread, variables100 x 200 x 65 cm
overallInstallation at Preview Berlin, Berlin
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Kasper Sonne Beginning/ Middle/ End No. 1-420063 sided aluminum
signs with motor, cords, wood, vinyl text, endless rotationCa. 145
x 100 x 30 cm overall eachInstallation at Krinzinger Projekte,
Vienna
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Beginning/ Middle/ End N o. 1-4
Beginning/ Middle/ End N o. 1
rememb er what you know / know what you forget / forget what you
remem ber
know what you forget / forget what you remember / remember what
you know
forget what you reme mber / rem ember what you know / know w hat
you forget
Beginning/ Middle/ End N o. 2
forgiveness is a lie / lie to get ahead / ahead lies
forgiveness
lie to get ahead / ahead lies forgiveness / forgiveness is a
lie
ahead lies forgiveness / forgiveness is a lie / lie to get
ahead
Beginning/ Middle/ End N o. 3
love / love / love
love / love / love
love / love / love
Beginning/ Middle/ End N o. 4
forever means everything / everything changes nothing / nothing
lasts forever
everything changes nothing / nothing lasts forever / forever
means everything
nothing lasts forever / forever means everything / everything
changes nothing
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Kasper Sonne Untitled sign (for here or for somewhere
else)2007Polystyrene, wood, glue, wire65 x 810 x 14 cm
overallInstallation on the roof of 17 Kingsland Road, London
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Untitled sign (for here or for somewhere else)
17 Kingsland Road, London
For his rst installation in London, now his place of residence,
Danish born artist Kasper Sonne has placeda sign reading - AN
ORDINARY LIFE - on the roof of an old factory building in Londons
trendy East part oftown. Measuring 65 x 810 x 14 cm the sign is
quite obvious in scale, but detached from any clear context
andwithout any further explanations or references, the work impose
multiple readings and it is thus solely up tothe spectator to form
any sense of meaning, when confronted with the sign. Questioning
the established no-tions of communication, the sign, as with most
of Sonnes work, seem to raise more questions than it givesanswers.
Is the sign some sort of message? And if so, who is it from and to
whom? What is to be regardedan ordinary life and who decides? In a
time and a place where everybody seems preoccupied with living
asextraordinary lives as possible, Sonne might suggest that this
ironically becomes the ordinary. The buildingon which roof the sign
is placed holds, among other things, the studio where Sonne works
and as such, thesign might also reference a commercial logotype
sign. Again, some irony is to be found in this, as the life ofthe
artist throughout history has been regarded as being somewhat out
of the ordinary.
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Kasper Sonne Sign language No. 22006Fabric, wood, paint138,5 x
150 cm overallInstallation at V1 Gallery, Copenhagen
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Kasper Sonne Do as you are told2006Wall painting26,5 x 257
cmInstallation at V1 Gallery, Copenhagen
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Kasper Sonne Before performance in black & white2002Lambda
printDimensions variableInstallation at Kkunst, Copenhagen
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Kasper Sonne After performance in black & white2004Lambda
print
Dimensions variableInstallation at Gallery Myymala 2,
Helsinki
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Kasper Sonne Eight performers in color2004DVD with sound, 5.07
minDimensions variableShown at Bergen Kunsthalle, Norway
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Kasper Sonne Sign language No. 12004Fabric, wood, paint
138,5 x 150 cm overallInstallation at Espace SD, Beirut
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Kasper Sonne The distance between us2005Neon, cords, converter,
2 way mirror, metal chains
Dimensions variable
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Kasper Sonne Fuck the people2004Print on paper
120 x 170 cmInstallation at the City Hall Square as part of a
public art program, Copenhagen
Kasper Sonne
Born Denmark1974
Lives and works in New York and Copenhagen
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Education 1997-2000 BA, The Danish School of Design
Upcoming exhibitions
2009 Museo Sala Siqueiros, Mexico City, Mexico. Yet untitled.
Curated by Jorge Reynoso (solo)2009 LaviolaBank Gallery, New York,
US. Yet untitled. (solo)2009 V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark. Yet
untitled. (solo)
Solo exhibitions (selected)
2008 Karriere Bar, Copenhagen, Denmark. Untitled performance,
curated by Maria Kjr Themsen2006 V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Trust Me2004 Gallery Beneath, Stockholm, Sweden. Small works2004
Myymala2, Helsinki. Punk Rock Saves. Performance and installation
under Copenhagen Blow UpSupported by The Danish Art Council2004 The
Royal Danish Theater, Turbinehallerne. Ambition makes you look
pretty ugly2004 Stereo Bar Copenhagen, Denmark. One night
installation and performance No. 2
2003 V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark. AM I EVIL?2002 I-N-K
Institut for nutidskunst, Copenhagen, Denmark. The Dicktator
Sucks!2002 Kkunst. Stereo bar, Copenhagen, Denmark. One night
installation and performance No. 1
Group exhibitions (selected)
2008 Union Gallery, London, UK, The Destruction of Atlantis,
curated by Jesper Elg2008 LaviolaBank Gallery, New York, US, Year
12008 Zoo Art fair, London, UK, V1 gallery booth2008 Art
Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, V1 Gallery booth2008 Moti Hasson
Gallery, New York, US. Benet HIV law project2008 Museo de San
Carlos, Mexico City, Mexico. 56 N, 10 E, curated by Michael Bank
Christoffersen2008 Lauritz Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark. FIGUR,
curated by Mads Damsbo2008 Skien, Norway. TEMPO Skien Public art
commission, curated by Anne Szefer Karlsen2007 Seventeen Gallery,
London, UK. What can desert islands do?, curated by Paul
Pieroni2007 V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark. Spitting Image2007 Zoo
Art fair, London, UK, V1 gallery booth2007 Preview Berlin, Berlin,
Germany, V1 Gallery booth2007 Art Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark,
V1 Gallery booth2007 Volta Show 03, Basel, Switzerland, V1 gallery
booth2006 Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria. Exportable Goods -
Contemporary Danish Art Curated byJesper N. Jrgensen and Severin
Dnser2006 Preview Berlin, Berlin, Germany, V1 Gallery booth2006 Art
Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark V1 Gallery booth2006 M+R Gallery,
London, UK. The wish list2005 DogA, Norges Design og
Arkitekturcenter, Oslo, Norway. DNA2005 So Stockholm, Stockholm,
sweden. DNA2005 Galleri edition, Copenhagen, Denmark. DNA2005 Art
Copenhagen, Denmark, V1 Gallery booth2005 The Royal Danish Theater,
Turbinehallerne. Framed2004 Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway. Video
20042004 Galleria TaDas, Vilnius, Lithuania. Lifestyles2004 Forum,
Copenhagen, Denmark. Art Copenhagen Art fair with V1 Gallery2004
Ridehuset, rhus, Denmark 5 million Peace March, Let us talk while
we walk 52004 YNKB. Copenhagen, Denmark. 5 Million Peace March2004
Espace SD, Beirut, Lebanon. 5 million Peace March, Let us talk
while we walk 42004 Lothringer Dreizehn, Munich. 5 million Peace
March, Let us talk while we walk 32004 Representing Denmark at The
International Art Symposium. Vents, Lithuania2004 Transplant
Gallery, New York. Lavender2004 Dagen efter. Public art exhibition
in the cities Copenhagen, rhus and Randers2004 V1 Gallery,
Copenhagen, Denmark. One
2003 Galleri Asbk, Copenhagen, Denmark. Size 122002 Den Frie
udstillingsbygning, Denmark. KE 20022002 Nils Strk Contemporary
Art, Copenhagen, Denmark. Gallery Luhmann, curated by Jason
Dodge
Contributions
2007 Kelvin colour today, Die Gestalten Verlag2007 Kulturo,
Danish Magazine for Contemporary Art2006 Apparatur # 12, Danish
Magazine for Contemporary Art and Poetry
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Interviews/ Articles/ Reviews
2008 Telemarksavisa, Norwegian newspaper, Art that communicates,
June 2008
2007 Weekendavisen, Danish newapaper Art consentration, Nov.
20072007 Information, Danish newspaper, Basel blues, July. 2007
2006 Plaza Magazine International, The Art edition, Top 40 under
40 Summer issue 2006Politiken, Danish newspaper, Trust Me, April
2006Kopenhagen.dk, Contemporary art on the net, Trust Me April.
2006
2005 DR2, Danish national television, Art collectors Nov.
2005
Perfect Editions, Kasper Sonne, Nov. 2005Ready Made Magazine
Japan, Kasper Sonne, Nov. 2005Ledelse i dag, Danish newspaper,
Street-art in your livingroom, May. 2005
2004 Brsen, Danish newspaper,Art as a lifestyle, Dec.
2004Citadel, Danish newspaper,Norse Projects, Dec. 2004
Urban, Royal Clubbing, Oct. 2004LNK channel, Litauens National
TV, Ryto ratas, Sep. 2004Politiken, Danish newspaper, Thrown out of
the gallery, May. 2004Kulturmagasinet Viva, Danish television, Feb.
2004Kultur Nyt p P2, Danish Radio program, Art in the city, Feb.
2004Politiken, Danish newspaper, Art in street-level now !, Feb.
2004Kunstmagasinet P2, Danish Radio program, The day after, Feb.
2004Kopenhagen.Dk, Celebration of rebellion, Feb. 2004Copenhagen
Post, Danish newspaper, Highly regarded artist, Jan. 2004Bo Bedre,
Magazine Talent with a raw style, Jan. 2004Kunstmagasinet P2,
Danish Radio program, Public Art Jan. 2004TV Danmark2, Danish
television, Art in the hood, Jan. 2004Information, Danish
newspaper, The gallery that came in , Jan. 2004Berlingske Tidende,
Danish newspaper, Street Rebels, Jan.2004
2003 Politikken, Danish newspaper, Am I evil?, Aug.
2003Vesterbro bladet, Danish newspaper, Am I evil?, Aug.
2003Kopenhagen.Dk, Contemporary art on the net, Am I evil?, Aug.
2003
2002 Jyllands Posten, Danish newspaper, The thrill of life is
back, Oct. 2002Costume, Danish magazine, ,Danish artist with
international format, Oct. 2002Jyllands Posten, Danish newspaper, ?
for Kasper Sonne, Aug. 2002Politiken, Danish newspaper, The
Dicktator Sucks!, Aug. 2002AOK.Dk, Danish culture site on the net,
The Dicktator Sucks!, Aug. 2002Jyllands Posten, Danish newspaper,
Big city raw, Aug. 2002Politiken, Danish newspaper, A gathering of
friends, Marts 2002III Magazine, The unexpected Mr. Kasper Sonne,
Feb. 2002, by Jamie McPhee
