Malou da Cunha Bang
On Edge
2021

About the Item

Edition 3/3 Malou da Cunha Bang (b. 1982) graduated with a BFA in 2014 and a MFA in 2016 from The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. She lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. She has exhibited in Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Portugal, Uruguay, Slovakia and Yerevan. She has received grants from the Danish Arts Foundation, and she is also represented in their collection. She received the A M Lindell grant in 2021, and was nominated for the Queen Sonja Print Award in 2020, and the QSPA inspirational Award in 2017 and 2020. Since 2018 Malou has been a volunteer member of the artist-run exhibition space Sydhavn Station, an old office space and small kiosk at a train station in Copenhagen. The artist says of her work… I work in graphics and the motifs in my prints are composed from private family photos and found images, cinematic material that I have staged and directed, or taken from private home video archives of 8 mm film and VHS. The scenes in my motifs are often set indoor in sparsely occupied homes, and ordinary but overwhelming public space that resonate with a sense of shivering inertia. My works revolve around a restless and ambivalent longing for a community, not knowing if you feel like being a part of it or not. I work with the paradoxical anatomy of intimacy, the suffocating security of the ordinary, and the fragile and beautiful foundation of everyday life. I explore the concept of belonging by reconstructing ambiguous familiar spaces like the modern home or shared public spaces. Within these scenarios I investigate atmospheres of nostalgia and troubled memories, longing, repression and hope. In my recent works, I investigate the idealization of certain spaces - like the perfected home, and the healing spa bath - as strivings for self-realization that at the same time can shape foundations for prisons of our own making. The home is supposed to be a private safe haven with shady oases of shelter, but it also encapsulates the hyper-civilized human body in an inorganic isolation of glass, metal and overexposed surfaces for others to see and admire. The spa reveals the self-optimizing human body in luxurious surroundings that both offer solace and the never-resting search for the ideal of harmony. I use collages and films as sketching as a way to deconstruct the familiar into a new form and challenge established mindsets and values. It is a way of questioning hierarchies and systems that encircle what is termed ‘the normal’, ‘the ideal’, and ‘the good life’.

Creator:

Malou da Cunha Bang (Danish)

Creation Year:

2021

Dimensions:

Height: 18.5 in (46.99 cm)Width: 19.75 in (50.17 cm)

Medium:

Paper,Ink

Period:

21st Century

Condition:

Gallery Location: