Ingvar Cronhammar & Morten Stræde: Ideal / Ein Gespräch

Ideal / Ein Gespräch is the result of a series of conversations between Cronhammar and Stræde, who – in spite of great differences in artistic expression and approach – have several common fields of references. The exhibition presents two imposing sculptures placed on the same surface, in the same zone.

Ingvar Cronhammar’s works place themselves in the field between architecture, art, and design, and these affinities are evident in the work We saw that didn’t we, on which a small city raises from the surface of a massive, red sculpture. The work reveals Cronhammar’s fascination of the industrial, and throughout the creation process the possibilities of technology are utilized to its full potential. We saw that didn’t we incites to slow-paced thoughtfulness, but underneath the surface lurks an unease in the realization of recognizing something one has never before seen.

Morten Stræde’s sculpture Geist is an anthropomorphic figure whose acute angles are inspired by the American bomber ’Spirit’. The airplane is characteristic as it is invisible on the radar due to its special angles, and the plane is thus simultaneously physically present and invisible. From an aesthetic point of view the high technological machine is extremely beautiful, and in a fascination of the beautiful in the horrific, Stræde extracts this ’sublime’ feature and give it a body. A body that reaches toward a sky that is projected back onto the sculpture, so that baroque cloud formations intermix with the sculpture’s sharp and almost futuristic aesthetic.

Ideal – Ein Gespräch has previously been on display at Vendsyssel Museum of Art, and will travel to the Funen Art Museum November 2011. The exhibition comprises a catalogue with text by Anders Troelsen.