JYTTE HØY
Sketch for the Structure of Peace
23 September to 5 November 2006
OVERGADEN
Institute of Contemporary Art
Overgaden Neden Vandet 17,
DK-1414 Copenhagen K
NB! New Opening Hours:
Tuesday Sunday 1-5pm, Thursday 1-8pm
FREE ENTRY, FREE GUIDED TOUR
EVERY SATURDAY 1-2pm
www.overgaden.org
OVERGADEN Institute of Contemporary Art presents a solo exhibition by the Danish artist Jytte Høy.
On OVERGADENs ground floor it is a pleasure to show new works by Jytte Høy entitled Sketch for the Structure of Peace, Chequered United, The Line of Coincidence and Non-interpretable Thoughts. These particular titles serve as concrete points of departure for enigmatic juxtapositions of objects and the contrasts of humble materials. Jytte Høy works in a precise conceptual and poetic language with a certain humorous charm. Complex relationships are established between the objects. The works develop from each other and together they visualise and materialise into obstinately persistent assertions, which play a central role in Jytte Høys personal artistic universe. As is the case with her objects, Jytte Høys exhibitions grow from one another. Thus Sketch for the Structure of Peace at OVERGADEN develops and renews the topicality of individual works from Jytte Høys previous exhibition The Museum of Thought at Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Centre and at Esbjerg Museum of Art.
Jytte Høy works with different formal languages that are brought together in a kaleidoscopic way. A drawing or a photograph can function as a point of departure for a group of works by letting the thought-experiment continue, and a concept is materialised in a sculpture. In the group Chequered United, Jytte Høy in this way takes her point of departure in a series of photographs of motifs where the checked pattern is a common theme, thus making up a postulated community. This two-dimensional community is hereafter expanded to also include three-dimensional checks (cubes) as sculptural objects. In this way the works grow organically from one another, and this seductive game with different dimensions and the works subtle charm draw the spectator into an otherwise closed conceptual artistic universe.
The works ambiguous content is a trace of Jytte Høys unique working process. They are imprints of her own series of associations and thus appear as road signs that point towards the artists next destination in the expedition of thought. To walk through the exhibition is therefore a particularly intimate experience where the visitor is let into the artists private imagination and way of thinking.
Also characteristic is Jytte Høys ability to create sets of rules and work with stubbornly persistent assertions that the works are materialisations of. In her whole working process one can trace the way in which the rules create boundaries which insubordinately are broken open again, where after creative associations are allowed to flow. An example is a series of drawings from the group of works Non-interpretable Thoughts where the grid acts as a fundamental structure. In the prevalent Western sense the grid is synonymous with rationality and control, but Jytte Høy has here used a specific system from the tradition of Islamic ornament where she displaces the grids points in infinity and colours the patterns that appear. In its entirety Non-interpretable Thoughts is an attempt to visualise the short circuit of a statement, as opposed to Jytte Høys usual practice that still pursues the way in which meaning is created.
In March 2006 Jytte Høy (born 1952) received the Eckersberg Medal for her artistic practice. Recent solo exhibitions include A Historical Alphabet for You at Arken Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj, in 2004 and The Museum of Thought (awarded by the Danish Arts Council) at Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Centre and at Esbjerg Museum of Art, 2003 and she participated in the group exhibition Fluxus und die Folgen at Nassaurischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, Germany, in 2002. Jytte Høy lives and works in Copenhagen and Århus and has been Director of the Jutland Academy of Fine Arts since 1996.
The exhibition is supported by the Danish Arts Council and the National Workshop for Arts and Crafts.
For more information or images, please contact Lotte Boesen Toftgaard on tel: 45 32 57 72 73 or email: lbt@overgaden.org
