Flesh Tint Project, 2015
Double solo show in Kunsthal NORD and KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, Aalborg, Denmark (the museum’s temporary exhibition space at Aalborg Railway Station). The project includes flag installations in the old boiler and turbine halls in Nordkraft and an almost 1.5-kilometre-long stretch of street, festooned with flags and bunting and an artwork in the local newspaper, Nordjyske.
The exhibition was awarded a prize by the Danish Arts Foundation.
Line of Flesh Tinted Flags (2015) is part of the collection of KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art Aalborg.
The main thrust of the Flesh Tint Project is the “flesh color” as sold in paint shops. In visual terms, it is the color of “pigs”, mainly associated with Northern Europeans. By using “the white man’s” skin color and flesh-colored flags as part of their project, Hesselholdt & Mejlvang are thematising national symbolism and challenging culturally specific models of “Us” and “Them”.
Flesh Tint Project challenges familiar constructs such as Danish-ness, gender and the home as a bastion of security.
In KUNSTEN at Aalborg Railway Station,is a number of flesh-painted national flags, a home-made pink tapestry with 28 stars, which is (perhaps) a reference to the EU, and three, large, eagle-like birds in a variety of aggressive attack positions. At first sight, the stuffed birds seem lifelike. But they are, in fact, composed of Danish birds such as seagulls and common buzzards, with eagle beaks added and decorated with flesh-coloured war paint.
In Kunsthal NORD, Hesselholdt & Mejlvang have distorted their complex use of power symbols by a series of sculptural works, which respond to the rough and ready aesthetic of the venue. The objects belong mainly to the domestic universe: e.g. an embroidered pillowcase, a painted teddy bear, birthday flags in formations, worn sheets, an ordinary flagpole and a gazebo, the windows and doors of which have been blocked off with peepholes that offer a view of a grotesque scenario portrayed in liver-like hues.
The project is supported by the Danish Arts Foundation.
Photo: Niels Fabæk.
Kunsthal NORD. White Man’s Pavilion, 2015. Wood, paint, various objects inside.
4-8-16, 2015. Paper flags, paint.
Flag for the Home Front, 2015. Flagpole (12 m.), flag, fabric, dye.
Camouflaged Alligators, 2015. Taxidermy alligators, paint.
Flag installation in the old boiler hall at Nordkraft.
Conquering Space, 2015. Plate, porcelain paint. Full Moon, 2015. Stoneware, porcelain paint.
Flags in Aalborg. 1.5-kilometre-long stretch of street, festooned with flesh-tinted flags and bunting.
Flag Union / 20 Flags, 2015. Flags, metal, marble, paint.
Flags in Aalborg. 1.5-kilometre-long stretch of street, festooned with flesh-tinted flags and bunting.
Heraldic Mixing Bowl, 2015. Mixing bowl, porcelain paint.
Landscape with Mill, 2015. Matches, paint, varnish.
Attack of the Warpainted Eagles, 2015. Taxidermy seagulls and common buzzards. The Star Circle, 2015. Fabric, dye, embroidery.
White Man’s Pavilion, 2015. Wood, paint, various objects inside.
Line of Flesh Tinted Flags, 2015. Polyester, paint, wood.
Pillowcase of the Fatherland, 2015. Pillowcase, embroidery.
Nasty Elephant / The One-Eyed Avenger, 2015. Teddy elephant, spray paint.
Kunsthal NORD
Patriotic Cupboard, 2015. Cupboard, flags, paint.
Red & White Neon Light, 2015. Neon, red filter.
The Star Circle, 2015. Fabric, dye, embroidery.
The old turbine hall at Nordkraft. Skin Colored Flag, 2015. Polyester.
