Installation view
Zinc White Lard, 2021
Part of a larger photo series
Zinc White Lard, 2021
91x126cm / Giclée photo print
Part of a larger photo series / installation view
Zinc White Lard, 2021
Part of a larger photo series / installation view
Zinc White Lard, 2021
Part of a larger photo series
Zinc White Lard, 2021
91x126cm / Giclée photo print
Part of a larger photo series
Zinc White Lard, 2021
91x126cm / Giclée photo print
Installation view
Zinc White Lard, 2021
Installation view
Zinc White Lard, 2021
Dimensions Variable / Teleprompter on tripod
Installation view
Zinc White Lard, 2021
Dimensions Variable / Teleprompter on tripod
Detail
Zinc White Lard, 2021
Dimensions Variable / Teleprompter on tripod
Detail
Zinc White Lard, 2021
Dimensions Variable / Teleprompter on tripod
Detail
Zinc White Lard, 2021
Dimensions Variable / Teleprompter on tripod
Installation view
Zinc White Lard, 2021
Dimensions Variable / Teleprompters on tripod, photo prints, and theater props from local theater
Detail
Zinc White Lard, 2021
Dimensions Variable / Theater prop from local theater
Detail
Zinc White Lard, 2021
Dimensions Variable / Theater prop from local theater
Detail
Zinc White Lard, 2021
Dimensions Variable / Theater prop from local theater
Installation view
Zinc White Lard, 2021
BACK TO TOP
Zinc White Lard
11.6.2021 – 4.7.2021 / open reception 11.06.2021
Galleri Sol in Bornholm, Denmark / www.solnexoe.com
Curator: Sofie Amalie Andersen
Photo credit: Brian Kure
“Whether we are stockbrokers, art critics, refugees or presidents, the manuscript always shapes how the role is performed”.
– Kjetil Røed, Kunsten og livet
A prompter is one that whispers.
Since the invention of modern theatre, actors world wide have benefited from prompters. Discretely placed next to the stage, they can with a few hasty words lead the players back on track when the otherwise memorised text disappears, and by that make the actors appear flawless and compelling. Even though human prompters by now are being replaced by digital tools – so called “teleprompters” that projects a scrolling text onto a see through surface – the demand is still the same. As audience, we wish to be deceived – and not be reminded that the actors on stage basically are acting out a manuscript in front of us.
The artist Lars Nordby has recently visited a number of great theaters in Europe. With his camera he has spent the last couple of minutes before the curtain is pulled together with the actors. With these photographs, Nordby portrays the theatre as it looks from the backside. Neither the accurate sentences learned by heart, the choreographed movements, or the perfect lighting is in focus; the fragility behind the layers of the white makeup mixture of zinc, vermillion, and grease has captured the attention of the artist. With his portraits of the human scenes acted out behind the stage, Nordby here highlights some of the dim solemnity lying right behind the spotlight.
Also outside the walls of the theatre we are constantly faced with acting. Changed media reality places higher demands on our abilities to portray ourselves as succesfull individuals, and we expect to see opinion leaders, debaters and politicians act confidently in the spotlight of the media. Spokespersons must be able to ‘deliver’ speeches that they mostly haven’t written themselves in a trustworthy manner in front of a public – the audience – who are ready to judge their performance. In the exhibition space Nordby lets teleprompter-texts with good advice on how to obtain a persuasive behavior scroll before our eyes. He asks us questions about what the actors are really doing when they through layers of theatre makeup and rehearsed lines, brush their clothes, prepare their smile, and step onto the stage? How are we affected by the well prepared speeches and directed gazes? And to what extend are we, the audience, a part of the act ourselves?
- Sofie Amalie Andersen
The exhibition project is supported by OCA / Office of Contemporary Art, NBK / Norske Billedkunstnere, Arts Council Norway, Municipality of V.Turnovo, the Danish Arts Foundation, Øernes Kunstfond, Det Obelske Familie Fond, Bornholms Regionskommune og Møbelfabrikken i Nexø. Many thanks to Rønne Teater in Bornholm.
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11.6.2021 – 4.7.2021 / open reception 11.06.2021
Galleri Sol in Bornholm, Denmark / www.solnexoe.com
Curator: Sofie Amalie Andersen
Photo credit: Brian Kure
“Whether we are stockbrokers, art critics, refugees or presidents, the manuscript always shapes how the role is performed”.
– Kjetil Røed, Kunsten og livet
A prompter is one that whispers.
Since the invention of modern theatre, actors world wide have benefited from prompters. Discretely placed next to the stage, they can with a few hasty words lead the players back on track when the otherwise memorised text disappears, and by that make the actors appear flawless and compelling. Even though human prompters by now are being replaced by digital tools – so called “teleprompters” that projects a scrolling text onto a see through surface – the demand is still the same. As audience, we wish to be deceived – and not be reminded that the actors on stage basically are acting out a manuscript in front of us.
The artist Lars Nordby has recently visited a number of great theaters in Europe. With his camera he has spent the last couple of minutes before the curtain is pulled together with the actors. With these photographs, Nordby portrays the theatre as it looks from the backside. Neither the accurate sentences learned by heart, the choreographed movements, or the perfect lighting is in focus; the fragility behind the layers of the white makeup mixture of zinc, vermillion, and grease has captured the attention of the artist. With his portraits of the human scenes acted out behind the stage, Nordby here highlights some of the dim solemnity lying right behind the spotlight.
Also outside the walls of the theatre we are constantly faced with acting. Changed media reality places higher demands on our abilities to portray ourselves as succesfull individuals, and we expect to see opinion leaders, debaters and politicians act confidently in the spotlight of the media. Spokespersons must be able to ‘deliver’ speeches that they mostly haven’t written themselves in a trustworthy manner in front of a public – the audience – who are ready to judge their performance. In the exhibition space Nordby lets teleprompter-texts with good advice on how to obtain a persuasive behavior scroll before our eyes. He asks us questions about what the actors are really doing when they through layers of theatre makeup and rehearsed lines, brush their clothes, prepare their smile, and step onto the stage? How are we affected by the well prepared speeches and directed gazes? And to what extend are we, the audience, a part of the act ourselves?
- Sofie Amalie Andersen
The exhibition project is supported by OCA / Office of Contemporary Art, NBK / Norske Billedkunstnere, Arts Council Norway, Municipality of V.Turnovo, the Danish Arts Foundation, Øernes Kunstfond, Det Obelske Familie Fond, Bornholms Regionskommune og Møbelfabrikken i Nexø. Many thanks to Rønne Teater in Bornholm.
