Works from Within the Circle
May 12 - June 23, 2012
In Works from Within the Circle Daniel Svarre uses recognizable objects from the fashion industry, and examines the relationship between seduction and power / powerlessness, which is found in these objects. When or how does clothes turn into a kind of uniform, and thus a manifestation of hierachy, power and opposition to the surroundings?
Masked consists of 5 male busts with nylon stockings pulled over it. The work represents a well-known displacement of nylon stockings from being fashionable / erotic elements, to drawing associations with crime. Daniel Svarre thus emphasizes the analogy between the erotic and criminals, an analogy that can be found in e.g. media and film with a glorification of crime and the exercise of power. At the same time Masked also deals with the use of clothing as uniforms in closed groups, which often gets an almost fetishistic character.
The sculpture Bricks is composed of a number of identical modules. Each module is created from an abstraction of a male body, where a repetition of the stomach and chest forms is continuous, taking the form of an abstract muscle. The work refers to the mannequin and the cult of bodily perfection and control, as found in this identity-bearing symbol. At the same time it is ambiguous whether the sculpture is being assembled or disassembled and thereby Daniel Svarre questions whether the control and perfection has succeeded. The same question can be found in Position in which a pair of men's shoes rests on the front part. This hint of an impending move - to stand up on the front foot - is also physically vulnerable, since it involves a risk of losing balance.
The exhibition Works from Within the Circle continues Daniel Svarre's artistic project, which revolves around the importance of belonging or being outside a sort of community and how this feeling is mentally and visually constructed. Various groups and unities offer the individual the opportunity of becoming part of something "bigger" and by using both hidden codes, secret rituals and mythological structures the individual is kept either inside or outside the community.
Daniel Svarre (b DK 1976) graduated from the Malmö Art Academy in 2006. He has participated in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad, among others: We are all Fanatics, Castrum Peregrini, Amsterdam (2011), VOLTA NY (v. Specta, 2011), Becoming Copenhagen, Copenhagen Museum (2010) Sons, SPECTA (2009), Uturn Quadrianale of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen (2008), Give Me Shelter, Overgaden (2008). He is represented in collections at home and abroad, including 21C Museum in Kentucky, USA, Nykredit and The Danish Arts Agency.
The exhibition is kindly supported by The Danish Arts Agency.