Clown Wall by Molly Haslund

Clown Wall by Molly Haslund

Date｜11/30 Sat. - 1/5 Sun. Opening｜11/30 Sat. 15:00 Performance｜11/30 Sat. 15:30 Forum｜11/30 Sat. 16:30

Guest｜CHI Kai-Yaun, YU Cheng-Ta

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【Statement】 Molly Haslund is a Danish artist based in Copenhagen. She has been an artist-in-residence at Absolute Space for the Arts since September 15th. Here, she has spent time developing props and costumes for a clown character, an alter ego in progress that for the time being is occupied by masks. During her stay, she has also spent a week learning traditional embroidery techniques at Golden Embroidery Makes Glory - Grandmaster of Embroidery Tainan. She has also made experiments developing a perfect clown nose in porcelain at Chin Chin Pottery and installations inspired by furniture in her live and work space as well as objects found and seen in public space and warehouses. The ideas and outcome developed in collaboration with the participants of two public workshops, hosted by Haslund and Absolute Space for the Arts, are also included in the exhibition. Her video "Hello, Do You Have a Mask?", filmed over three days in public space featuring people from Tainan and Haslund herself will be premiered at the opening.

【About Molly Haslund】 Molly Haslund holds a master’s degree from The Royal Academy of Fine Art, Copenhagen, and a master’s degree from the Glasgow School of Art, United Kingdom. Since Haslund graduated in 2005, she has shown performance-, sculpture-, socially engaging-, and movement based works. She has exhibited and performed extensively, both in Denmark and abroad, including Glasgow, London, Berlin, Munich, New York, Philadelphia and Kyoto. Haslund operates in the intersection between sculpture and performance art, integrating elements from pop culture, performing arts, literature and music into a multifaceted artistic practice. Through various strategies, Haslunds’ work explores how ideas, identities and social hierarchies are intimately connected with, and continuously negotiated through, bodily gestures, rituals, social designs and arrangements of our physical surroundings. In her performances, she occasionally integrates text and short narratives, often with a humorous twist. With her interest in physicality related to history, social environment and the present moment, her pieces are rarely constructed or performed the same way twice but are usually developed locally or adapted to new locations in dialog with the given context.

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【Excerpts from Molly Haslund’s Artist Statement】 Welcome to my laboratory. Welcome inside my white walls. I’m the one who lives upstairs in a room just like this. It covers an area running right here from the reception to the glass front and the door facing the street. Wearing porcelain on your face is a paradox. It makes it easier for your enemy to target you, hit you, smash your face and rip your skin. Therefore, you must walk around carefully and keep attention to where you are, whom you talk to, and what you aim for. Expect those meeting you to act extra cautiously. We believe that, but don't expect anything. We don’t know who anybody is.

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Organizer｜Absolute Space for the Arts Sponsor｜Danish Arts Foundation, National Culture and Arts Foundation, Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City