Peter Linde Busk
18 Mar - 24 Apr 2010
PETER LINDE BUSK
'Full Catastrophe Living'
March 18 - April 24, 2010
Exhibition Preview: Wednesday 17 March, 6-8pm
Exhibition open Wednesdays - Saturdays, 12 - 6pm and by appointment
ANCIENT & MODERN presents Full Catastrophe Living, an installation of new large-scale collages and prints by Peter Linde Busk in what is his second solo exhibition at the gallery.
Busk’s collages evolve from his painting and printmaking practise, being both based on the structures of, and incorporating scraps and discarded pieces from, these other disciplines. From this playfully arranged field of discards, the imagery slowly germinates into its own fulfillment, in a process of ‘reverse archeology’ (adding and over-layering, instead of clearing away).
The notion of failure or disappointment can be seen as a central preoccupation within Busk’s body of work, not only the bleak elements, but also the potentially creative, humorous, and liberating aspects: that the pitfalls and trials, the deepest mines of intellectual, emotional, and artistic life – when delved into – can yield the greatest riches.
Full Catastrophe Living refers to the title of a book by Jon Kabat-Zinn, who champions a way of living that involves Buddhism-influenced ideals such as self-awareness, reflection, and acceptance. This involves actively embracing ‘negative’ pressures like anxiety, darkness, and catastrophe, along with the particular knowledge that these forces lie beyond our human control. For Busk, this impulse parallels and extends into the creative process of compulsive image-making.
Like the material surfaces of the collages themselves, the titular references of the pieces are similarly borrowed or pieced together, in this case from seemingly disparate contexts of contemporary culture ranging from HBO series The Wire, Deadwood, and Entourage, to Leonard Cohen, Smashing Pumpkins, and Mark Eitzel song lyrics. The piece is never intended to illustrate its title, or vice versa. Rather, in conjunction, the two are meant to “rub each other the wrong way,” to spur a series of metonymical shifts that create a tension in which one is challenged to imagine or sense an atmosphere or sentiment that is palpable but not deliberately circumscribed.
Together, the works and the multifaceted cultural references cohere to create an atmosphere – a sort of third space – made from, yet existing outside and hovering at the margins of everyday life. In both the form and content of his paintings, collages, and printmaking, Busk explores that which courses beneath and within, and how this often dark matter is manifest in various tropes and forms of art, of which his own works then become another side-step or translation.
Peter Linde Busk (b.1974, Copenhagen) lives in Berlin. He completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art at the Royal Academy Schools (2009) following a BA at The Slade School, UCL (2006). Busk has held two solo exhibitions at Galleri Christina Wilson, Copenhagen, and was recently included in group shows Newspeak, The Saatchi Gallery (2010), The Long Dark, International 3, Manchester and Hatton Museum & Art Gallery, Newcastle (2009-10), and at BolteLang, Zurich curated by Sarah McCrory/Studio Voltaire (2009).
'Full Catastrophe Living'
March 18 - April 24, 2010
Exhibition Preview: Wednesday 17 March, 6-8pm
Exhibition open Wednesdays - Saturdays, 12 - 6pm and by appointment
ANCIENT & MODERN presents Full Catastrophe Living, an installation of new large-scale collages and prints by Peter Linde Busk in what is his second solo exhibition at the gallery.
Busk’s collages evolve from his painting and printmaking practise, being both based on the structures of, and incorporating scraps and discarded pieces from, these other disciplines. From this playfully arranged field of discards, the imagery slowly germinates into its own fulfillment, in a process of ‘reverse archeology’ (adding and over-layering, instead of clearing away).
The notion of failure or disappointment can be seen as a central preoccupation within Busk’s body of work, not only the bleak elements, but also the potentially creative, humorous, and liberating aspects: that the pitfalls and trials, the deepest mines of intellectual, emotional, and artistic life – when delved into – can yield the greatest riches.
Full Catastrophe Living refers to the title of a book by Jon Kabat-Zinn, who champions a way of living that involves Buddhism-influenced ideals such as self-awareness, reflection, and acceptance. This involves actively embracing ‘negative’ pressures like anxiety, darkness, and catastrophe, along with the particular knowledge that these forces lie beyond our human control. For Busk, this impulse parallels and extends into the creative process of compulsive image-making.
Like the material surfaces of the collages themselves, the titular references of the pieces are similarly borrowed or pieced together, in this case from seemingly disparate contexts of contemporary culture ranging from HBO series The Wire, Deadwood, and Entourage, to Leonard Cohen, Smashing Pumpkins, and Mark Eitzel song lyrics. The piece is never intended to illustrate its title, or vice versa. Rather, in conjunction, the two are meant to “rub each other the wrong way,” to spur a series of metonymical shifts that create a tension in which one is challenged to imagine or sense an atmosphere or sentiment that is palpable but not deliberately circumscribed.
Together, the works and the multifaceted cultural references cohere to create an atmosphere – a sort of third space – made from, yet existing outside and hovering at the margins of everyday life. In both the form and content of his paintings, collages, and printmaking, Busk explores that which courses beneath and within, and how this often dark matter is manifest in various tropes and forms of art, of which his own works then become another side-step or translation.
Peter Linde Busk (b.1974, Copenhagen) lives in Berlin. He completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art at the Royal Academy Schools (2009) following a BA at The Slade School, UCL (2006). Busk has held two solo exhibitions at Galleri Christina Wilson, Copenhagen, and was recently included in group shows Newspeak, The Saatchi Gallery (2010), The Long Dark, International 3, Manchester and Hatton Museum & Art Gallery, Newcastle (2009-10), and at BolteLang, Zurich curated by Sarah McCrory/Studio Voltaire (2009).