New Magical Exhibition by Randi & Katrine Opens at ARKEN
RANDI & KATRINE
Between Towers
31 January – 1 November 2015
ARKEN, Denmark
Deserted and utterly pointless – that’s the life of the Danish transformer tower. But not at ARKEN. Here eleven towers have gathered in a dramatic parade. Towering in the twilight they appear as mysterious figures with buzzing voices as part of a new major exhibition by Randi & Katrine.
ARKEN launches 2015 with a giant total installation specially created for the museum’s Art Axis by Danish artist duo Randi & Katrine. We know them best for their colourful large-scale works that lie in the cross-field between sculpture and architecture. Using simple modes of expression and a twist of humour, this duo turn the world upside down by making every day objects come to life. Whether residential teapots, animated houses or over-sized take-away boxes, Randi & Katrine create a magical world that playfully tricks our imaginations.
Relics from the past
In the exhibition at ARKEN, Randi & Katrine challenge the darker side of life. Here we enter a magic parallel universe of transformer towers. These buildings were scornfully referred to as ‘church towers for dwarfs’ at the beginning of the 20th century when they began to appear as foreign entities across the landscape - built to keep people out. But these anonymous buildings that once played an important role supplying power, have lost all their purpose and meaning in modern society. From being symbols of the advent of modernity, transformer towers now haunt the landscape like relics from the past.
Caught between real life and fantasy
The transformer towers have been given a new lease of life at ARKEN. In the twilight of the Art Axis, Randi & Katrine’s tower sculptures are transformed into mysterious figures with buzzing voices. Joined together by a jumble of electrical cables, the eleven towers form a dramatic parade of architectonic bodies coming to life. They talk to each other in humming voices, and their exaggerated sizes play with the proportions of the room - some tower above our heads, others we can look into. But we are only partly invited into the towers' inner world and community. With a mix of fear and fascination, Randi & Katrine present the towers as a shape we can add our own stories to. And between the towers – a place caught between real life and fantasy - we are invited to cast fresh eyes on a world we thought we knew so well.
Part of a bigger display
In 2015 the area around Køge Bay area will provide the setting for a large shared artistic manifestation by artist duo Randi & Katrine. This will take place when KØS and ARKEN focus on three dimensions of the artists' dramatic and magical universe. As well as the exhibition at ARKEN, KØS will present a comprehensive retrospective exhibition from April, presenting Randi & Katrine’s work spanning 10 years. New site-specific works will also be displayed to the public on a two kilometres stretch from KØS to the harbor area in Køge.
About Randi & Katrine
Randi Jørgensen (born 1974) and Katrine Malinovsky (born 1976) graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2005. They enjoyed their major national breakthrough in the art competition Vores Kunst (Our Art) in 2011, launched by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, the Danish Arts Foundations and the Danish Arts Committee. The duo won with their colourful decoration of the M/F Ærøskøbing ferry. Randi & Katrine’s most prominent exhibitions include The Village at the 2014 Sydney Biennial, The Clam Box – Come Back to Pleasure at Gl. Holtegaard in 2013 and The House in Your Head in the GL STRAND Arts Association in 2008 and Factory in Seoul, South Korea in 2009.
The exhibition by Randi & Katrine is displayed at ARKEN from 31 January to 1 November 2015.
Press images are attached - below text.
For more information, please contact:
Head of Communication, Marie-Louise Dunker
Phone +45 40 87 27 47, e-mail: marie-louise.dunker@arken.dk
Press Coordinator, Natascha Bang Jespersen
Phone +45 51 67 02 21, e-mail: natascha.jespersen@arken.dk
