Danish artist Rose Eken is a woman after our own hearts with her beautiful, off-kilter renditions of real life objects. Working out of her studio in Copenhagen, Rose uses ceramics to re-create the familiar objects and tableaux of modern life, and the things we surround ourselves with.
She takes seemingly boring, everyday objects like coffee cups, cigarettes, food and clothing, and freezes them in time. We suddenly realise in looking at Rose’s work, that these so-called banal objects which she focusses on are actually instilled with meaning, memories and narratives that are often held quite close to our hearts.
Take Tableaux, for example. A show at Copenhagen’s V1 gallery, where Rose staged the entire gallery space as an artist’s studio with ceramic recreations of real artist’s tools. Tables laden with paint tubes, brushes, work tools and snacks, along with shelves of supplies and even hangers with a coat remove the vail of mystery surrounding the idea of a ‘studio’.
Before Tableaux, her show Remain in Light in New York displayed punk rock paraphernalia like guitars, amplifiers, beer bottles and crates laid out stark and sterile like a large-scale butterfly collection. Both shows, despite their differences, tug at our chests and stir memories of our own versions of these objects.
She's currently working away at her new show Come on in my kitchen, and judging by the works-in-progress on her Instagram, the amazingness will continue.
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