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THE ACHROMATIC ISLAND
Sofie Thorsen
November 14, 2009 - January 24, 2010
Sofie Thorsen is occupied with the city – its architectural framework and social, cultural, historical and political issues. In her solo exhibition The Achromatic Island her focus is turned towards the city’s development and ramification – and ultimately its erosion of the surrounding landscape and all its characteristic features. At the exhibition Sofie Thorsen presents works that each in their own way deal with our movements in the urbane space and the experiences we get from this. At the same time she also discusses the city’s historical background, its imagery and symbolism.
Two short films have the metropolis Tokyo as their geographical starting point. In both films the focus is on the historical, artistic and sociologic movements that have played a part in the shaping of the city as it looks today, but that are not very clearly visible in the townscape. By means of a series of historical photographs Sofie Thorsen in one work builds up a collage that in a series of slides slowly is picked to pieces. In the other work, Tokyo is depicted on the basis of the Situationists notion Dérive, and we are taken on a random walk through the city.
A third short film, The Achromatic Island, depicts in black and white the contemporary landscape on the Danish island of Fur. By doing this Sofie Thorsen turns her attention towards a somewhat special set of problems from this peripheral area: In the 1950s a genetically inherited kind of black and white colour-blindness prevailed among the inhabitants of the somewhat secluded island, but with the gradual opening of the isolated area this has disappeared again. The three short films all move in a black and white – and partly drawn – universe that on a formal level intends to examine the narrative and documentary qualities of the film medium.
Last, but not least, the exhibition also consists of the installation Centerline Rd / Queen Mary Highway, which like the other works is also concerned with the cultural history of a local community. By means of drawings and photographs Sofie Thorsen depicts the architecture around a certain street on the island of St. Croix – the former Danish colony in the West Indies. In this way she indirectly tells a story about colonialism and liberation; parameters contained in something as simple as a street name.
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