Special thanks to:

ART PHOTO by Jeppe Sørensen
PORTRAIT PHOTO by Ken Hermann

My mum and dad
WAS, William Schulin-Zeuthen, Carla Christina Bruus Strube, Marie Mamonia,
Jeppe Sørensen, Ken Hermann, Casper sejersen, Werkstettet, The Lab, Vesterkopi, Scoop Models, Marianne Skrøder, Anne-Sofie Thorsdale, Louise Brun, Marianne Jensen, Marie Thomsen, Cecilie Liv Mortensen, Theis Bruun Thomsen, Emil Frøge, Louise Staugaard Mortensen, Rikke Jull, Josephine Kyhn, Karen Segal log Leena Lundgaard.

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Helle Mardahl: A Royal Orgy Of Consumption

A political parade against everything normal. An immense dark sexuality. An orgy of materialism and references towards art, fashion and life. Helle Mardahl generates it all nurtured on black coffee and cigarettes like a true artist and real rock’n’roller.

In her Copenhagen based studio sunrays battle the uncanny shadiness of the royal characters she creates: The king, the queen, the princess, and the knight. They’re all waiting there ready for the show. A complete royal family with an opulent super detailed surface to meet the eye. But soon, oh so soon hereafter, an autonomous underworld of wickedness, voyeurism, revolt and pop culture crops up and disturbs the royal atmosphere. From here on everything is twisted.

Helle Mardahl’s solo exhibition A Royal Orgy Of Consumption at WAS derives from these recognisable, sovereign stereotypes and leads us from there into a mean fairytale of the mélange of the human existence. At first glance it appears as a total installation with works covering the room head-to-toe but shortly after collages, gobelins, paintings, prints and sculptures single out from each other and apprise their individual stories.

With a background as fashion designer a head of her time, Mardahl have now freed herself of the changing fads of fashion, and brought her knowledge of aesthetics, body movement, colour and drawing in to a new, broader fields without seasonal expectations. Art. Looking at her works you understand why this was a needed move.

A detailed surrealism transforms body shapes with extra kneecaps, blossoming vaginas, Mohawks and super sized hands, feet and lips. The sculptures are composed out of both fabrics and objects giving reminiscence to both fashion and everyday life extravaganza. But despite the absurd elements and the excessed handcrafting, Mardahl always gives the personas in her works a naturalistic feel. Whether it be with lifelike masks or photos of body parts in the prints you always have a bite of reality to cling on to, a familiarity which actually only ends up making the experience even more distressing.

Download katalog and interview here