Kasper Sonne : Blanketed Paintings Appear at Tokyo’s Kaikai Kiki Gallery
What You Need to Know About This Exhibition
The Venue: Kaikai Kiki Gallery
Timeframe: The exhibit runs from October 26th to November 22nd, 2018
The Artist: Kasper Sonne. Born 1974 in Copenhagen, Denmark
Lives in New York
See also: West Museumkwartier
Disclaimer:
I write about art however I want. I observe no standards or norms unless I do. A thoughtful review, or something vacant or tangential; moods are my style guide here. thanks!
This is the first time I’ve taken in the work of Kasper Sonne, and only after recently discovering Takashi Murakami’s gallery project at the top of the hill in Hiroo, Tokyo.
Immediately upon walking into the gallery I caught a number of familiar odors in the current exhibition of Kasper Sonne, like the smell of old books in a library, I wanted to follow the paper trail of artist influencers evident in the body of work on view, but as I have been well-trained to do, I suppressed those impulsive thoughts and ignored my bloodhound urges to trace back in order to freshen up my eyes for the task at hand: viewing the work.
Concept vs. Physicality
If the history of Kasper Sonne’s work were opaque to me, I would still know that 1) almost all artists with good exhibition records are conceptual and 2) this work seems conceptual only as a politeness, not as a source of motivation for this work (with the exception of the word scramble in the tatami room).
If I didn’t know any better I would categorize the large color field experiments blotted with black alkyd fat and draped with blankets, velvets an other materials as deconstructionist and annihilistic. The objects have weight, are elegant, fashionable and negative.
Fashion, the theater, the finer things in life… are rejected and spat on in an empathetic, respectful way in these works.
I had a moment of two of the sublime too, mostly with a section of draping velvet that hadn’t been slathered in paint and whose sheen stood out in the room.
My Neural Map of Related Artists
Don’t be distracted! Get inspired : )
To gather together a list of related artists that relate to any particular living artist is at the very least, projection. But using an artist (artists are used as a matter of course) as a contextual point on a map, though perhaps in bad taste, is still useful to help the public get their bearings in the space, even if it doesn’t help to “get it”.
So here goes:
“A butterfly in flight stimulates my imagination. By freeing myself from discourse, I loose myself in time and I start making holes.”
“I had discovered this material, one I find loaded with strange suggestions, which is cardboard. A grey, anonymous material that won’t be easily manipulated, for which very reason the slightest mark of the hand torments it and destroys it. But the piece of cardboard, the box, the lid, the tray.. ..dirty clothes (socks, T-shirt, underpants…), old furniture, everyday objects; not used as a representation or theme in the picture but as real bodies, objects.”
“A painting is not a picture of an experience, but is the experience.”
- Banks Violette, circa 2006
“If you can find this compelling as an aesthetic experience, that’s one step down a queasy slope to putting yourself right next to the person who’s lighting the match.” New York Times, 2017
“Very early on, I started to think about what it is to share 50 percent of your income with a dealer.” W Magazine, 2014
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