Spatial Drawings

The ceramic sculptures of Martin Bodilsen Kaldahl are emphasizing their fundamental existence in space. Through his precise formal elaboration of the material even a casual and banal gesture in space is attributed significance. With a vigilant eye for the monumental within the insignificant the artist works to create the conditions for shaping an intuitive, spatial form. He works from an overall vision, while at the same time making obstacles for himself in order to loose some of his control. Out of numerous pieces of cut claytubes the artist builds parts that are later assembled into larger structures, that rise and fall, randomly dancing and groping their way through space. The sculptural statements might be emerging out of a mental void. They exist, but they could easily have looked completely different. They are results of a distracted sense and thus remain pure sculptural movements – like a captured account of the moment.

For the exhibition at Galerie NeC Kaldahl will also be showing a series of new wall sculptures, that are works of a larger scale than he has shown earlier in the gallery. Most of these sculptures have been made during an artist’s residency at the Danish National Art Workshops in Copenhagen. The works are interpretations of basic elements in visual imagery, e.g. the line as sculpture or the sphere as a three dimensional reference to the point. The artist equally exploits material aspects referencing textures and colour of the rich ceramics culture itself.

Throughout his career Martin Bodilsen Kaldahl has worked with various formal expressions in clay. One returning theme has been the knot as spatial figure. He has made series of works, where natural form and cultural construction are juxtaposed – one reflecting the other. His interest lies in the potential of the form to make a direct emotional impact on the viewer. The motif is always clear in its simplicity – you see what you see – but the work equally displays a time-dimension of its own making, that underline the simple starting point and inscribes the work into a tradition, where the precise elaboration is a self-evident precondition.