Astrid Kruse Jensen — Parallel Realities — Backslash Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: June 9 → July 23, 2011

In the wake of her exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum of Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, Danish artist Astrid Kruse Jensen is transforming the Backslash gallery’s three levels into an astonishing world where her landscapes, on the dividing line between real and imaginary, plunge the viewer into what has become the characteristic darkness of her photographs.

Astrid Kruse Jensen uses analogue photography to create settings that are controlled right down to the tiniest detail of space, light and colour. They are characterized by twilight landscapes, wooden houses looming in the darkness and a mood imbued with a sense of nostalgia. These elements form a vocabulary rooted in the imaginary and in memories, where childhood and the colour red play a dominant role.

Memory is a key theme in her work, even though she is dealing in a created, imagined memory. As she explains:

“Memories are the reference point for this project, which questions the role of the photograph as ‘The beholder of our memory’ (…) In this project, I have chosen to create memories that have never actually existed or been recorded (…) The images create a sort of spatial interaction between the past and the present, a dislocation of time and memory.”

The figure of a woman dressed in red sometimes inhabits these strange landscapes, conjuring up different stories in the mind of the viewer, whose imagination thus becomes the sole judge in distinguishing between reality and fiction.

Astrid Kruse Jensen’s work needs to be exhibited over the long term, so that the darkness can express its every facet and the light release the full force of its intensity.

The Backslash gallery exhibition centres on several series of works produced over recent years: Parallel Landscapes, Imaginary Realities and The Construction of Memories. Together they form a panoramic vision of the photographer’s different worlds.

Astrid Kruse Jensen’s work has been shown widely, especially at the Stedelijk Museum of Hertogenbosch (2011); Maison du Danemark of Paris (2010); Viewing Room in Bombay (2009); Harbourfront of Toronto (2006). Her photographs are presented in many international collections, such as the George Eastman House (USA), the National Museum of Photography (Denmark), the Hafnarborg Institute of Culture and Fine Art (Iceland), the John Kobal Foundation (London) and the Manchester City Gallery (United Kingdom).