18/8- 24/8, 2023
Don’t look at me gallery
Curated by Kajsa Karlsson
Don’t look at me gallery is an exhibition series that takes place in a room in a basement in Amager. The series focuses on works that are embarrassing or in other ways uncomfortable for the artist to display.
I do not invite artists because they have a practice that fits this concept, but rather I have an expectation that they respond to the concept and challenge themselves.
Lisa and I have talked about secrets that some may be aloud to know about, but not others. This type of material should possibly not become art. Or it could become art, but not really shown, just hidden under some mysterious other materials. Or it can be superclear what it’s about, but shown at a place like Don’t look at me gallery, where we don’t have much audience.
The exhibition room are renovated before the exhibition series and the floor has been painted in a burgundy, bloody, fleshy color that is a bit uneven. The transparency of the color means that the structure of the concrete shines through. It looks crazy, rough and beautiful. There is also a drain in the middle of the room where you can imagine the artists melting and draining away when the feelings of embarrassment or anxiety reach them.
Voice message to M
Artist Lisa Fahr
In Fahr’s response to the invitation, she immediately caught on to the fact that the exhibition would be abroad. She saw the opportunity to work with something that has been very important to her, but which cannot be shared with the ones around her in Essen, Germany, her hometown. This exhibition is only for her Copenhagen friends, not her family, not her wife.
The exhibition revolves around a private voice message that has had an important personal meaning for Fahr. These message was sent from Fahr to a friend and made her find out a lot about herself. It was both liberating and painful when she spoke and at the same time organised her thoughts.
We have talked about being more or less concrete. Close to the opening, I still don’t know what this means or what the voice message is about.
The choice of title has been less important in this project. Otherwise, it is in the titles that Fahr hints at something. She often chooses a title with enough interpretations, it needs to be enough unclarity. The abstract paintings are paired with abstract titles. This leads the audience into a guessing game, what does the painting represent or what does the artist mean? She hates this guessing game, but still tricks people into it.
Sometimes, however, she has sought to be more obvious, as with sitting, she has worked with measured her sitting and it is clear that this is was what she is doing. On Don’t look at me gallery, she also like it to be concrete, obvious and clear even though it is a sensitive subject. And of course also for that reason. It has to be right when working with high-risk material like this.