Katrine Borup

Vester Søgade 58, 3.th
1601 København V — Denmark

+45 53 34 83 89
katborup@gmail.com

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20 metres of unbleached sheet canvas - part II (2023)

“20 meters of unbleached sheet canvas - part II” is a site-specific installation made for the exhibition venue OBJEKT by Iben West and Katrine Borup. The installation consists partly of a fabric work and partly of photo documentation of a workshop on Djursland in the spring of 2023 with a focus on FABRIC, NATURE and BODY. The exhibition was part of the Juxtapose Artfair in Aarhus, late summer 2023 and initiated by HINT project - a collaboration between Sanne Ransby and Mariko Wada with a focus on the dissemination of craft and material-based art.

In the fall of 2019, Iben and Katrine went to Norway with 20 meters of double-wide unbleached sheet canvas. As part of Projectroom-hveem, they participated in a one-week residency with the theme SPACE AND PLACE, where they let the sheet canvas meet the site and photo-documented their investigations (see PROJECTROOM-HVEEM (2019)).

Projectroom-hveem was the starting point for them to continue working separately with unbleached sheet canvas, Katrine in the exhibition project STOF TIL EFTERTANKE and Iben in BLIND SPOTS, KANVAS and ODD SIZE BLOCK PRINT (IbenWest.dk).

In May 2023 they met again for a week-long workshop in Gjerrild on Djursland with 20 meters of double-wide unbleached sheet canvas. This time with ambitions to expand the studies with another element: THE BODY. But also with the awareness that the studies should result in a concrete installation in the rather complex exhibition space OBJECT.

The analyses of the exhibition space and the ideas for different spatial approaches were important for the exercises in the forest on Djursland, but the exercises in the forest were also important for the development of the final (fabric) installation.

Col xl 20meterii marikooginstallation 2023

Photo: Iben West

Col xl 20meterii installationsetoppefra 2023

Photo: Iben West

Behind the fabric installation in OBJEKT lies the simple idea of ​​hoisting 20 meters of unbleached sheet canvas up from the ground in a simple (without tools) and formally interesting way. This takes advantage of the height of the exhibition space and the possibility of viewing the fabric from multiple positions due to the space's interposed floor deck. The fabric installation is the result of an interaction between BODY, NATURE sticks, FABRIC and exhibition SPACE over time, and the process of creation is directly visible in the exhibited fabric work, even though the process has ended and the body is no longer present. There is a performative element above the otherwise stationary fabric work, which also invites the viewer to engage in a dialogue with the work bodily by moving between the two floors of the exhibition space.

Col xl 20meterii rulleogkropp stamme 2023

Photo: Iben West

Col xl 20meterii ibenp skr nt 2023

Photo: Iben West

Col xl 20meterii rulleisform 2023

Photo: Iben West

Col xl 20meterii mosskovmedrulle 2023

Photo: Iben West

Col xl 20meterii vinkendeh nd 2023

Photo: Iben West

Col xl 20meterii ibenogkatrine 2023

Photo: Iben West

The exercises in the forest and the exhibited fabric installation can be considered a kind of tectonic study, as Iben and Katrine have worked formally with the joining of FABRIC, NATURE and BODY. They have investigated basic principles such as pull and pressure, slack and tension, the supporting and the carried, when they have, for example, hung themselves up in the fabric, pressed themselves and the fabric against tree trunks, pulled the fabric through the forest floor and tied themselves to trees. But they have also been preoccupied with the evocative stories that invariably arise when FABRIC, NATURE and BODY are brought into interaction.

Col xl 20meterii mariko medkasse 2023

Photo: Iben West

Col xl 20meterii marikosreol 2023

Photo: Katrine

OBJEKT is an exhibition space for experimental crafts and contemporary art in part of Mariko Wada's ceramics studio. Iben and Katrine's site-specific installation plays with the series of ceramic objects that Mariko has made in recent years, where various familiar shapes seem to be hidden under a piece of cloth. The works are on open shelves in the workshop, which is directly connected to the exhibition space. The photo documentation of the experiments in the forest is placed in one of the boxes of the work shelf.