Ditte Ejlerskov
02 May - 13 Jun 2015
© Ditte Ejlerskov
The Minaj Castle, 2015
oil on canvas
26 paintings, 65 x 46 cm each: 260 x 255 x 46 cm
The Minaj Castle, 2015
oil on canvas
26 paintings, 65 x 46 cm each: 260 x 255 x 46 cm
DITTE EJLERSKOV
The Minaj Show
2 May – 13 June 2015
Sommer & Kohl are pleased to present the first exhibition with Danish artist Ditte Ejlerskov (*1982). In a new body of work, Ejlerskov investigates feminism and the gaze of the white middle-class pop consumer, with American rapper Nicki Minaj as the focal point.
Nicki Minaj has climbed to the top of a male-dominated business and, in the artist’s view, critiques sexuality, power relations, racial stereotypes and patriarchal hierarchies through her acts and lyrics. In order to convey a deeper understanding of these unconventional feminist methods, THE MINAJ SHOW unpacks the contemporary mainstream through a body of work which appropriates the rapper's aesthetics and lyrics.
THE MINAJ SHOW endeavours to highlight the gap between pop culture’s feminist efforts and an academic feminism. Primarily via the act of painting, Ejlerskov aims to support the rapper in the mission of spelling out, enhancing and superimposing loaded images. She reuses Minaj's method of challenging race and gender stereotypes. But since the artist is a white European middle-class consumer and not the Afro-American producer of the material, the focus of the show is twisted. As well as exploring elements of Minaj's logic, Ejlerskov also explores her own consumption, her gaze, her body, her appropriation, and even her own role as an art practitioner.
The main tool in Ejlerskov's practice is media literacy. Most of her work is based on interactions with the Internet; written correspondences with email-scammers from other parts of the world, translations of paparazzi photos into large-scale abstract paintings or copperplate etchings based on imagery from contemporary music videos. Ejlerskov explores painting’s potential as a tool for interpreting the reality and fiction surrounding her. Through different artistic approaches she engages themes and experiences belonging to the “post” generation – the post colonial, the post feminist.
Ditte Ejlerskov lives and works in Malmö (SE). Recent selected shows and projects include: Bow Down Bitches, LARMgalleri, Copenhagen (DK); Syster, Borås konstmuseum (SE); About: The Blank Pages, Malmö Konsthall (SE); Paradise Reclaimed, Galleri Nord-Norge (NO); Alongside, Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, Texas (US); We Found Love in a Hopeless Place, Elastic Gallery, Malmö (SE); Full Arch, Claude Rutault - L’exposition continue (écho), CNEAI, Chatou (FR); Carnegie Art Award 2012; Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki (FI); The Collector, Uppsala Konstmuseum, Uppsala (SE); In Search of Eden, CCA, Andratx (ES).
The Minaj Show
2 May – 13 June 2015
Sommer & Kohl are pleased to present the first exhibition with Danish artist Ditte Ejlerskov (*1982). In a new body of work, Ejlerskov investigates feminism and the gaze of the white middle-class pop consumer, with American rapper Nicki Minaj as the focal point.
Nicki Minaj has climbed to the top of a male-dominated business and, in the artist’s view, critiques sexuality, power relations, racial stereotypes and patriarchal hierarchies through her acts and lyrics. In order to convey a deeper understanding of these unconventional feminist methods, THE MINAJ SHOW unpacks the contemporary mainstream through a body of work which appropriates the rapper's aesthetics and lyrics.
THE MINAJ SHOW endeavours to highlight the gap between pop culture’s feminist efforts and an academic feminism. Primarily via the act of painting, Ejlerskov aims to support the rapper in the mission of spelling out, enhancing and superimposing loaded images. She reuses Minaj's method of challenging race and gender stereotypes. But since the artist is a white European middle-class consumer and not the Afro-American producer of the material, the focus of the show is twisted. As well as exploring elements of Minaj's logic, Ejlerskov also explores her own consumption, her gaze, her body, her appropriation, and even her own role as an art practitioner.
The main tool in Ejlerskov's practice is media literacy. Most of her work is based on interactions with the Internet; written correspondences with email-scammers from other parts of the world, translations of paparazzi photos into large-scale abstract paintings or copperplate etchings based on imagery from contemporary music videos. Ejlerskov explores painting’s potential as a tool for interpreting the reality and fiction surrounding her. Through different artistic approaches she engages themes and experiences belonging to the “post” generation – the post colonial, the post feminist.
Ditte Ejlerskov lives and works in Malmö (SE). Recent selected shows and projects include: Bow Down Bitches, LARMgalleri, Copenhagen (DK); Syster, Borås konstmuseum (SE); About: The Blank Pages, Malmö Konsthall (SE); Paradise Reclaimed, Galleri Nord-Norge (NO); Alongside, Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, Texas (US); We Found Love in a Hopeless Place, Elastic Gallery, Malmö (SE); Full Arch, Claude Rutault - L’exposition continue (écho), CNEAI, Chatou (FR); Carnegie Art Award 2012; Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki (FI); The Collector, Uppsala Konstmuseum, Uppsala (SE); In Search of Eden, CCA, Andratx (ES).