Lower East Lab are very happy to present:

A Minor Detail. Else Duedahl / Pen on Paper

Exhibition in Lower East Lab Berlin 20.02-14.04.2019
Exhibition opening Wednesday 20.02. 5:30 pm to 8 pm

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Else Duedahl (born in 1948) is preoccupied with the notion of serial processes – with repetition and the simplification of complex forms. Often her minute attention to detail will echo certain shapes in the landscape that capture the eye during her frequent, almost ritual morning walks. Through the experience of nature structures find their way into the artist’s pocket: “For me, the act of putting a stone or a straw in your pocket is identical to planting a seed – simply by placing it in your pocket, where the hand brushes the object’s surface countless times during the day, it begins to grow. Consciously and unconsciously these structures, surfaces, lines and shapes grow directly into my art on the paper.” (Else Duedahl).

“As an observer I have the feeling of looking into a microscope.
I’m invited in to take a look behind the indefinable façade, into the matter of existence itself – and right there I am overtaken by this extremely fine intimacy.”
– Lotte Korshøj, Museum Director, Mag.art – and the curator of the exhibition.

Originally, Duedahl started working with the old-fashioned ink pen on the rough Fabriano paper as a form of self-chosen obstruction to distance herself from painting. In later years, however, it has become her primary mode of expression. Natural structures, studied for years, are encased in stringent lines on paper – in serial repetitions slightly displaced from paper to paper, artwork to artwork. The serial line and the recurring focus on specific structures and details is endlessly repeated, which, to those unfamiliar with Duedahl’s work, can make it seem inaccessible. But only until you patiently accept the premise of her art. Because when something is repeated often enough, focus is eventually diverted from the repeated act itself. All meaning is drained from the act, and in that void a space for reflection, vital for the artist, emerges.

Duedahl’s art not only presupposes such a space – it is identical to it. In the same way, we, as observers, can come to terms with the work’s repetitions and structural shapes by accepting it as something which can be emptied of meaning. We are then granted a unique opportunity of directing our gaze inwards, towards something larger.

With “A Minor Detail”, Else Duedahl displays her graphical line through pen on paper, serving us close-ups of nature’s façade and presenting us with an intimate glance into the very matter of existence.