BIRTHE JORGENSEN

CONTACT

Birthe Jorgensen
25a Alconbury Road
Stoke Newington
London E5 8RG
United Kingdom

Telephone: 020 8806 0359
Mobile: 079841 53375
Email

CV

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2007 FLOATING ENIGMA. Paul Kleefeld Gallery, Copenhagen
2006 MY HANDS AS A COMMON GRAVE AS A GARDEN… The window gallery, CPT, London
2002 ATTEMPTED LANDSCAPES, Gallery Nema Hvad, Reykjavik

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2007 FIVE SCANDINAVIAN FEMALE ARTISTS, Gallery La Viande, Hoxton, London
A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN, Atelierhaus Mengerzeile, Berlin
2005 IT'S PERSONAL, Red Gate Gallery, London
2004 CRACKS IN THE PAVEMENT, Street project curated by Heather L.
Johnson, London and Austin
ALL FOR LOVE, Brompton Cemetery, London
UDEN No II, collaboration with Greenlandic artist Arnarjaraq H. Olsen,
Gallery Grønlandske Hus, Aarhus
UDEN No I, collaboration with Greenlandic artist Arnarjaraq H. Olsen,
Gallery Grønlandske Hus, Copenhagen
TEN OF THE BEST, Artreview Magazine's selection of graduates, by
Ossian Ward,The Deluxe Gallery, Hoxton Square, London,
www.deluxe-arts.org.uk/current.html
2003 WARREN'S PLACE, display of five young artists for selected
gallery managers and curators by art editor Catriona Warren, Sloane
Square, Knightsbridge, London,

SCREENINGS / LIVE ART
2007 THE SOCIETY FOR EXSISTENTIAL ANALYSIS, Regents Park, London
TATE MODERN, collaboration with Sound Artist Sarah Washington, London
GOLDSMITHS COLLEGE OF ART, slide show accompanying Julia Lee Barclay's
lecture: 'Apocryphal Theatre: Holding Tensions', the lecture series
'Inventing methodologies', London
2006 LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY, Loughborough
NORTHAMPTON UNIVERSITY, slide show accompanying Julia Lee Barclay's
lecture: 'Apocryphal Theatre: Holding Tensions'
CAMDEN PEOPLE"S THEATRE, live visual artist in New York play-writer
Julia Lee Barclay's Arts Council England funded production, The Jesus
Guy, London

COLLECTIONS
PAUL KLEEFELD COLLECTION, Copenhagen
BEHNIA COLLECTION, Los Angeles

RESIDENCIES
2007 CENTRAL SCHOOL OF SPEECH AND DRAMA, with Apocryphal Theatre, London, UK
2003 HOTEL SKAFTAFEL, Skeidar Sandur, Iceland
2002 FISHGUARD CONVENT, Fishguard, Wales

LECTURING / TEACHING
2006 ICELAND ACADEMY OF VISUAL ART, Reykjavik, Iceland
PRESS
TOTAL THEATRE, 'The Jesus Guy', Dorothy Max-Prior, pp.14-17, Sep. 2006
BRUNEL UNIVERSITY PRESS, 'My hands as a common grave as a garden…',
Lois C Sotelo, Volume 4, Sep. 2006
THE GUARDIAN, 'The Jesus Guy', Lynn Gardner, Apr.2006
MARMALADE MAGAZINE, 'It's the arts club', by Ossian Ward, pp. 108–111, Sep. 2003
D.V. ICELAND, 'Mask dancer', by Vilmundur Hansen, pp.28–29, Mar. 2002

RESEARCH PROJECTS
THE APOCRYPHAL THEATRE COMPANY, live visual artist, London,
http://www.flyingoutofsequence.org/

COMMISSIONS
2005 REDBRIDGE ARTS TRUST, temporary installation in Valentine Park, Illford

EDUCATION
2000-03 CENTRAL SAINT MARTIN'S COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN, Bachelor
Degree with Honours in Fine Art, London
2002 ICELAND ACADEMY OF VISUAL ART, international exchange, Reykjavik

THE ARTIST

Birthe Jorgensen was born and raised in Denmark. She gained a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts from Central Saint Martins College in 2003. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, among other places in Artreview Magazine's yearly show, 'Ten of The Best', showcasing England's most promising young artists. She has guest-lectured and taught at Iceland Academy of Visual Art. In conjunction with her photographic pathway she continues her work as a 'live visual artist' with the experimental theatre company Apocryphal Theatre, with whom she has performed in places such as Tate Modern in London. She will be showing work from her photographic series 'The ecstasy of Melancholia'.

Having a background in near monochrome painting, Birthe Jorgensen’s photographic landscape series serve as a means to confront certain paradoxical statements made within minimalist painting and to undo a personal touch deemed too subjective to retain.

These images favour a painterly sensibility above the laws of gravity, yet remain tied down in the abnormal objectivity and unreal stasis of photographic representation. They claim a liminal pictorial space between photographically correct reality and colourful abstract planes.

A photograph is a macabre interruption in time and in order to prevent any sense of a past or future bleeding in and out of these images, this body of work isolates and solidifies the interruption by as far as possible excluding any discernible disturbance inside its strict compositions. Seemingly pointless realism and a certain sorrowfulness anchor these cold impossible places. The drift towards, what with hindsight might be described as the emotional totality, that artists such as Mark Rothko, especially near the time of his death, expressed so clearly in his iconic paintings, is hindered by sharp realism. The only consolation for the spectator searching for resolution or relief within this work is the recognition of the uncomplicated beauty of gently coloured planes engendered by differing qualities of daylight and weather conditions.

WORK

Untitled, from the series "Ecstasy of Melancholia", C-type print, 2005, 10" x 12"

Untitled, from the series "Ecstasy of Melancholia", C-type print, 2006, 12" x 10"

Untitled, from the series "Ecstasy of Melancholia", C-type print, 2006, 12" x 10"

Untitled, from the series "Ecstasy of Melancholia", C-type print, 2005, 10" x 12"