ART CITIES:Paris-Henrik Olesen

Henrik Olesen, Wallpaper, big (Detail), 2018, Canvas, inkjet print on paper, gouache, 221 x 888 cm, Photo: Florian Kleinefenn, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel-ParisIn his work Henrik Olesen investigates structures of power and systems of knowledge to reveal inherent logics and rules of social and political normalization. Olesen’s projects, based on in-depth research, have addressed a range of subjects including legal codes, the natural sciences, distribution of capital, and art history, and have taken the form of posters, fliers, text, collages, found-object sculptures, and spatial interventions.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Galerie Chantal Crousel Archive

Each project or task taken on by Henrik Olesen questions and deconstructs the notion of authenticity in social constructions such as public laws, representation of minorities, globalization, poverty and anti-homosexual legislation. He further subverts these territories and disciplines by employing cheap and fragile materials in his installations and sculptures. Henrik Olesen’s solo exhibition “6 or 7 new works” at Gallery Chantal Crousel lies in the practise of opposing concepts, of mirroring them into their embedded infinity. It is about things opposed to bodies, as is sculpture at its core, adding an irrational that very simply distorts space. The artist presents 6 or 7 new works, at the same time work-blocs, hermetic in themselves, and interconnected between each other, through a narration of identities, as things, as icons, and as spaces. The points of departure for Olesen’s examination include contemporary as well as historic references from a variety of fields such as architecture, law, and economics (the geographical and demographic distribution of capital), the natural sciences and the history of art.  As Ariane Müller says in the exhibition text: “The German word Icht means any thing, or any such thing. The word has nearly vanished in modern language, having survived only in Nichts (nothing or no-thing), which was formed out of the two words in (meaning no) and icht (any such thing) as in-icht. If we subtract the T from Icht, the Ich remains; this is the German equivalent to the I. Embedded and included in Icht, in any such thing, is the I, the inherent I of any such thing. The subtracted T is also the mathematical nomen for transcendental numbers, Known transcendental numbers, proven to exist in the middle of the 19th century, are at the same time rare—the most famous being Pi—and supposedly many, but yet unknown, and mathematicians seemingly wait for them to spring up somewhere. As a rule they are irrational”.

Info: Galerie Chantal Crousel, 10 Rue Charlot, Paris, Duration 28/4-27/5/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.crousel.com

Left: Henrik Olesen, Depression 1, 2018, Glass, glue, silicone 25 x 51.5 x 26 cm /, Photo: Florian Kleinefenn, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel-Paris. Right: Henrik Olesen, As yet untitled 3, 2018, Glass, glue, metal brackets, 57.5 x 81 x 22 cm, Glass #1 - 21 x 80 x 22 cm, Glass #2 - 21 x 81 x 20.5 cm, Photo: Florian Kleinefenn, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel-Paris
Left: Henrik Olesen, Depression 1, 2018, Glass, glue, silicone 25 x 51.5 x 26 cm /, Photo: Florian Kleinefenn, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel-Paris. Right: Henrik Olesen, As yet untitled 3, 2018, Glass, glue, metal brackets, 57.5 x 81 x 22 cm, Glass #1 – 21 x 80 x 22 cm, Glass #2 – 21 x 81 x 20.5 cm, Photo: Florian Kleinefenn, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel-Paris

 

 

Left: Henrik Olesen, As yet untitled 3 (Detail), 2018, Glass, glue, metal brackets, 57.5 x 81 x 22 cm, Glass #1 - 21 x 80 x 22 cm, Glass #2 - 21 x 81 x 20.5 cm, Photo: Florian Kleinefenn, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel-Paris. Right: Henrik Olesen, As yet untitled 7 (Detail), 2018, Glass, glue, metal brackets, 46 x 60 x 20.5 cm, Photo: Florian Kleinefenn, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel-Paris
Left: Henrik Olesen, As yet untitled 3 (Detail), 2018, Glass, glue, metal brackets, 57.5 x 81 x 22 cm, Glass #1 – 21 x 80 x 22 cm, Glass #2 – 21 x 81 x 20.5 cm, Photo: Florian Kleinefenn, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel-Paris. Right: Henrik Olesen, As yet untitled 7 (Detail), 2018, Glass, glue, metal brackets, 46 x 60 x 20.5 cm, Photo: Florian Kleinefenn, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel-Paris

 

 

Henrik Olesen, Hand-painted surfaces 3, 2018, Cardboard, paint, table - 8 elements, 95 x 140 x 70 cm, Photo: Florian Kleinefenn, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel-Paris
Henrik Olesen, Hand-painted surfaces 3, 2018, Cardboard, paint, table – 8 elements, 95 x 140 x 70 cm, Photo: Florian Kleinefenn, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel-Paris

 

 

Left: : Henrik Olesen, As yet untitled 9 (Detail), 2018, Glass, glue, metal brackets, 20 x 147.5 x 20 cm, Glass #1 - 16 x 61.5 x 16 cm, Glass #2 - 21 x 81 x 21 cm, Photo: Florian Kleinefenn, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel-Paris. Right: Henrik Olesen, Hand-painted surfaces 3 (Detail), 2018, Cardboard, paint, table - 8 elements, 95 x 140 x 70 cm, Photo: Florian Kleinefenn, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel-Paris
Left: : Henrik Olesen, As yet untitled 9 (Detail), 2018, Glass, glue, metal brackets, 20 x 147.5 x 20 cm, Glass #1 – 16 x 61.5 x 16 cm, Glass #2 – 21 x 81 x 21 cm, Photo: Florian Kleinefenn, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel-Paris. Right: Henrik Olesen, Hand-painted surfaces 3 (Detail), 2018, Cardboard, paint, table – 8 elements, 95 x 140 x 70 cm, Photo: Florian Kleinefenn, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel-Paris