FOLD - KANT GALLERY
Press release
We are pleased to invite you to KANT’s second solo exhibition with the artist Peter Ravn.
In February 2018 Peter Ravn had his first exhibition in KANT entitled “His Own Fall”. The motives here were often close-cropped, anonymous men, who either crawled, were about to fall, or had fallen. The palette was greenish and greyish.
In “FOLD” Peter Ravn compositionally has stepped back, and the acting two men this time have solid ground under their feet. They are engaged in a common task, and Ravn investigates different stages of this process.
The curatorial concept of the exhibition is strict: 14 works, height 40 cm and width from 50-100 cm, hanging like a frieze in the square gallery room.
The motif will be known by many. The two characters are folding a cloth, putting it together. As in Peter Ravn’s earlier works, the scenario is a dreamlike space, where the everyday recognisable and the absurd are stumbling near to each other. This time, however, Ravn’s characters seem more reconciled. The men cooperate carefully, adapt to each other’s physical forces and seem to find meaning in the execution of the almost ritual act. Textile is, as seen in other of Ravn ́s latest works, a central element, this time in the form of a cloth, around which the situation is centred. The fabric is painted and portrayed with sensual empathy and is handled by the men with devout care.
The act appears ceremonial, following a kind of folding liturgy. As in any ritual, there is an associated choreography: in a predetermined and well-known order and sequence, appropriate steps, shaped and repeated by generations throughout history, and in this case the history of garments, take place.
The repetition of the basic act, the severity and also the colour tone of the background place the motif somewhere outside both time and place. The surroundings are painted with vivid brush strokes, but are at the same time more or less monochrome; some are held in a shade of powder – coloured morning red.
The fact, that the action is recognizable from traditional household, activates the viewer’s own experiences and opens up for other stories. Two formally dressed men perform a traditional housewife task, which may point to the modern man’s new role. Whether Ravn’s men are oppressed – domesticated – or, on the contrary, liberated, is not answered in his works.
Since January 2018, Ravn has had the solo exhibition “WHEN MEN ARE ASLEEP” at Munkeruphus, the solo exhibition “RECOVERY POSITION” in Politikens Forhal and has participated in the group exhibition “JAHRESAUSGABEN”, Lothringer Halle 13 in Munich, curated by Jörg Koopmann.