Solo Exhibition FADING by Nina K. Ekman
January 14 – February 26, 2023
From January 14 to February 26, an exhibition FADING by fibre artist Nina K. Ekman is on view in the exhibition hall Kunstpakhuset.
Nina K. Ekman’s solo exhibition FADING discloses a bright, tender universe – an experience-based installation of fading palm leaves. A spectator is invited to step onto the main stage and walk through the palm grove.
FADING is a site-specific installation where the visitors take the main stage by walking through the 16-meter-long carpet avenue, consisting of 2 – 3-meter-high fibre palms. A journey begins with lightly toned palms and carpet. Moving through the palm grove, the spectator experiences tufted, knitted and crocheted palm sculptures increasingly fading. In the end, the carpet and the palms remain about the former landscape – in the form of white, fragile threads.
In the universe of Ekman, nature is always a focal point. The works of art express the call to take care of it, depicting nature as a paradise where humans long to find a sense of peace; or seek to find significance within magnificent flora and wild fauna. In FADING, Ekman brings humans’ ignorant relationship with nature to the foreground and applies the palm as an implication of victory and immortality.
The installation invites us to reflect on humanity’s anthropocentric world of view, where the role of flora and fauna is related to services for homo sapiens. Humans control, modify, duplicate and consume nature until it loses its natural features. As colourless copies, the palms are placed in straight rows while the spectator occupies the central stage in changing and fading the biosphere. It is like celebrating of humans’ dominance and total control over the biosphere. Furthermore, in this process, humans lost a connection to nature. A connection in which the people celebrate the beauty, the colours, the diversity and the fact that the anthropomorphous creatures have the same origin in the stardust of the universe.
Ekman continues to develop plant matter by FADING, exploring fumbling, disappearance, loss and mortality and underscoring consumers’ continued exploitation of nature and the planet.
Nina K. Ekman is a Norwegian artist based in DK/USA. In multiple visual art disciplines – etchings, sculptures, textiles – the artist solves the circle of matters related to nature and its interactions and relations with human beings. Sustainability is a key concept for Ekman’s textile works of art, selecting second-hand clothes and excess yarn from the textile industry to create her pieces.
Supported by: Nationalbankens jubilæumsfond; Johannes Jensen & Helle Mau Jensens Fond; Lemvigh-Müller Fonden; Aage og Johanne Louis Fonden; Dansk Wilton; Ikast-Brande Municipality; Egefonden.
Press release prepared by: Zanda Jankovska
Art Director Kunstpakhuset
T.: +45 23 11 10 19
E – mail: info@kunstpakhuset.dk
Lille Torv 5, 7430 Ikast, Denmark
Hours: Thursday – Sunday, 12 am – 4 pm
Admission: Free admission for all visitors
Inauguration: January 14, 1 pm