Woods 2015
In this debut solo exhibition Monika Kühne Jørgensen presents work inspired by her curiosity to understand Northern European identity. A concept that has proven to be elusive at best. Her investigations have led to the imagery of woodlands: the forest as a metaphor for a shared European cultural space. The sparsely planted tree-landscapes evoke a ‘forest-dream’ as imbedded into our collective consciousness by the fairy tales read out to us as children. The small landscape sketches of European identity have resolved themselves into places of wonder, magic and opportunity with on occasion a sinister undertone. The woodlands are positioned between a childhood dream, imagined reality and specific places.
Scandinavian landscapes, Nordic tales and Northern European turn-of-the- century painters all contribute to Kühne Jørgensen’s compositions, which are imbued with an ethereal and atmospheric quality. Her style for this particular project has developed into an idiosyncratic language with always the vertical movement of the trees as an echoing feature across this series of paintings.