Saturday night we went to a trendy bar in Manchester for a drink before settling down in a jazz club where the treatment was good jazz and good pizzas. And you know what? In both the bar and the jazz club we experienced the same phenomenon – that of not being able to converse.

Well, one could say that at least in the jazz club we’re supposed to listen and not talk, so what’s the other thing? No, we also experienced that “thing” in the jazz club – when the band took a break. So, what is the “thing”?

The “thing” is that what is supposed to be background music contributing to relaxing the overall atmosphere in the bar or jazz club wasn’t that. It was foreground music! Through its sheer volume the was-meant-to-be-background-music occupied the entire 3-dimensional space of both the bar and the jazz club!

The music was so loud that we simply could not converse. We had to shout to get a word or two across the table. And that was a pity, because the bar had a very interesting interior décor that we had seen on photos and now wanted to discuss when actually being there. Primitive shouts are not exactly well suited for that.

And you may not believe it, but even in the jazz club where we sat at a table in the row nearest the stage, the music filling the breaks was significantly louder than the music played live by the 5-member band.

Why is it so? You go to a bar to converse over a drink or two, not to shout for the purpose of exchanging a few one-syllable words.

Anyway, the jazz was good, the company good and overall the evening was very good.

The impact we had experienced of background music turned into foreground music made us, however reflect on how artwork also can impact the viewer – from somewhat similar to the mellow trumpet solo to that of mega-volume music totally dominating the space.

We realised that art can span the same gamut as music – from that which invite to quiet reflection and contemplation to that which is disturbing and dominating.

In a way, one can equally talk about the sound of art as about the sound of music.
 

It sometimes happen that special weather conditions turn architecture or infrastructure into something magical and really draw the attention to the power of light and importance of contrast. We experienced just that last Friday while walking in one of the older parts of Copenhagen, which is featured by a squared street layout. The orientation of the streets is determined by the harbour front going SSW-NNE, which means that half of the streets are pointing towards the sun early afternoon.

You can now imagine how it is looking down the street on a fair winter’s day when the sun fills it with light from a low angle. In one direction the light discloses myriads of details and hues in the facades of the houses, which during summer are easily overlooked, and visually pulls them towards you as if they were observed through a long focal lens.

When you turn around and look in the other direction – towards the sun – the scene is diametrically changed. Colours and details are gone, suppressed in the fierce battle between light and shadow. The scenery is very dramatically rendered in just a few values and could with applause appear on the cover page of the B&W Photo Magazine. It is contre-jour all over!

When walking, at this time of the day, in the streets running perpendicular to the sunlit ones you will have this scenery chock at each crossing. It is very peculiar indeed and most impressive in St. Kongensgade and Bredgade.

And it was when we reached Bredgade that we began to reflect on the artistic aspects of these opposite street sceneries that we connected to the specificity of this street. It is the gallery street of Copenhagen. Well, there are many galleries in the city but Bredgade appears to be the street of reference – or the “established” one.

Some years ago we realised how interesting gallery visits can be, and how informative for expatriates like the two of us as to how the Danish art scene is moving. And here we were, in a street with many galleries representing many “tastes” and with no meetings or other obligations for the next couple of hours.

So we decided to visit galleries.

In China it is the Year of the Rat, in Denmark it seems to be the Year of the Cobra. CoBrA was a group of Danish, Belgium and Dutch artists founded in 1948. Now, 60 years after, one of the major auction houses of Copenhagen, also located in Bredgade, has a Cobra-auction planned for beginning of March; and a gallery in the street which has had a long standing representation of one of the members, Asger Jorn, probably the most prominent of them all, has been inspired by this 60 years anniversary to feature him through an exhibition.

It was very interesting for us to visit this exhibition of around 20 pieces – and a challenge. Asger Jorn is not an easy chap to deal with artistically, and we probably have to work longer and harder to understand him.

Denmark is a little country, so it was no surprise that we the next day, in the other end of the country, again encountered Mr. Jorn. It was in the Art Museum of Aalborg, where they also featured the 60^th anniversary of the CoBrA group. This gave us an opportunity to see a few more of his works and of some of his colleagues’ as well.

We know that two encounters with Asger Jorn will not be enough to understand what went on in his head when creating art, or playing with it, or struggling with it. But, as Inge says: “Art can be challenging, and when it challenges us we shall ask why and investigate to find answers”.

I recently read about one of the theories of Art History, stating that art is first really being created in the encounter between the piece of artwork and the spectator.

If this is true, then by investigating the works of Asger Jorn we actually do cooperate with him to make his art “real art” – even when we do not know from where he started and where he wanted to go with the piece.

Now, that’s interesting…

Some time ago, in October last year, the proximity with my dentist, as it altered during the process of installing a crown, made me reflect on the notion of distance and the relativity that subjectivity can lend it with. This reflection on relative distance made me think about a piece Inge had just finished. She had given it the title “Relative Distance”.

The work is uncomplicated in its composition. Inge sought a minimalist rendering of a scene with solitary trees so that the appearance of the work would underscore the simplicity and beauty found in them – and through the composition invite the viewer to reflect on the perception of distance.

Wednesday this piece of artwork made me think about absolute distance. Now, why is that – we were just talking about relative distance?

Well, Wednesday the 6^th of February was the opening day of the 9^th Quilt Nihon Exhibition and in this exhibition “Relative Distance” is on display – ready for a quiet dialogue and contemplation with the viewers, the first of whom were those invited for the opening that included a reception and an award ceremony.

What has that to do with absolute distance, you may ask. This is normal for openings of art exhibitions. Festive people, you know, mingling and small-talking while they carry their bubbles around in tall glasses – all having this little air of excitement.

The notion of absolute distance came into play due to the fact that the venue of the 9^th Quilt Nihon Exhibition is the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Japan – and Inge was in Chantilly, France. So the absolute distance between her and the reception and award ceremony was in the neighbourhood of 15700 km or 9800 miles!

I’m sure Inge would have liked to be there for the opening – not only to receive the prizes the international jury awarded her with (yes, they felt that “Relative Distance” was worthy of the “Encouragement Prize of the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology” and the “Grand Prix” – and not to forget the “Chuck Nohara Award” for “Chiaroscuro”, another piece she has in the exhibition) but also to experience the overwhelming impression that Japanese quilts lend her with.

Imagine to dwell in a collection of top quality quilts in the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Japan and take in what she admires in Japanese quilts: their design, their workmanship and not least their application of colours.

I can so well imagine how it must be, that I’m sure I’d like to have been there as well.

NB: Here is the link to the website for the 9th Quilt Nihon exhibition:  

http://www.jhia.org/contest/9th_quilt.html

You can see ”Relative Distance” and “Chiaroscuro” in the Quilt Show on our website. 

We have on previous occasions voiced our critical opinion on the logistically very heavy application procedures that some exhibition organizers impose on artists. One particular and very prominent examples were the “Quilt 200x” exhibitions at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, UK for which applicants were required to physically send their proposed work for the jurying process.

There are also exhibitions who maintain the so-called “Two Person”-category. They have been subject to our critical views as well because they lead inevitably to incoherent exhibitions which are not at all supportive of the artworks – or of the viewers for that sake, which is even more serious. A coherently curated exhibition provides for a far better experience for the viewers at the exhibition.

No, we are not a couple of old grumpy curmudgeons – we just want to improve conditions for the artists, their works, the viewers and – yes, also the managers of the exhibitions in which we show our works or would like to show them.

No, we are not grumpy. Let us show you that this is not the case.

In this entry on the blog we want to hand out a couple of roses.

Why is that? Well, we have recently had some very positive indications of improvements on the issues mentioned above.

The first rose should go to the organizers of the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, UK for having modernized their jurying process. Artists are no longer obliged to physically send their proposed artworks along with the application forms for the “Quilt 200x” exhibitions. Modern times have arrived and it is now sufficient to attach digital images of the proposed works! Logistics will be optimized, money will be saved and there is in our views now a good possibility for the organizers to also optimize the jurying process itself.

A real improvement – and the advantages go both ways! The organizers increase the odds that the exhibition “Quilt 200x” gains in importance and becomes one of the best exhibitions open for artists worldwide, coveted by artists as is the case for Quilt Nihon, Quilt National, Visions to name some of the more prominent in that league.

The second rose goes to the International Quilt Association (IQA) for having abandoned their “Two-person” category in its annual exhibition “Quilts: A World of Beauty”, which is featured at the Quilt Festival in Houston, USA. The fact that two artists cooperated on a piece of artwork does no longer make that piece unfit for matching and competing with other artworks created by one person only.

It is a move in the right direction where the artworks displayed count more than the production processes per se. Whereas this is good for the artworks, it is even better for the viewers – and we believe that this initiative will allow the curators to have an easier and more interesting future.

Also a real improvement – and a spin-off of this decision could be that we in the future will be hearing more about the sources and critics that more or less directly inspired to the making of the creations we see in exhibitions. Maybe we will see many more husbands or partners come out of obscurity. That would be a pleasure.

Everybody shares the objective of staging the best possible show for the visitors to come and experience and dwell in and talk favourably about to all their friends and colleagues. So let us look forward to many more initiatives like those mentioned above – initiatives that break old habits and modernize rules and procedures through the good use of technology available today.