“Loving Eyes”

 Kunsthal 44Møen is proud to present Loving Eyes, an installation specifically created by Kåre Frang (1992) for the Kunsthal’s old smithy. Loving Eyes is shaped by the artist´s fascination with the fragility of everyday life and its different structures. The installation is composed of seemingly familiar homely features such as ochre-colored walls, wooden floors, classic wooden doors, baseboards and light switches. A set of plastic fruit and vegetable toys is scattered on the floor, completing the image of a domestic environment, the expected backdrop of an everyday life scene. But what’s the weight of maintaining daily life?

A closer look reveals that most elements in the room are not made of their traditional materials: toys, which we expect to be hollow plastic shells, are here cast in solid bronze; hard wooden doors are replaced by soft oil-based modeling clay. This shift disrupts expectations between objects and their materiality and weight, generating an eerie discomfort marked by feelings of uncertainty and uneasiness. What if these feelings could leave an imprint on their surroundings?

Beyond a homely scene, the image of “groceries” on the floor also points towards a historical context of discontentment. For example, when audiences used to throw fruits and vegetables at actors on stage or politicians at rallies. A similar frustration is connected with a child throwing objects towards the adults in a more familiar setting: raging gestures that signal feelings of powerlessness and misunderstanding.

In Loving Eyes, toys are dangerously heavy. As such, their impact on their surroundings becomes amplified to the point of potentially altering them. Throughout the exhibition´s period, the work will unfold in the encounter between the visitors and the carefully crafted elements of this staged room. The environment will slowly start to bear the marks of these physical meetings between the different objects composing it.

By simply altering the weight of its elements, Loving Eyes reveals the fragility and vulnerability of any expectation towards a stable order in our individual lives, our society’s institutions and their power structures. Realizing the fragility of the order we live in has been very present lately, especially considering the unpredictable impact that the pandemic has had in our individual lives and societies. These are urgent realizations because only by knowing the system’s frailty can we believe in its possibility of change and be awakened in the understanding that individual choices can impact a larger system.

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The exhibition Loving Eyes by Danish artist Kåre Frang (1992) is part of PS44 series of commissioned works by emerging artists. Every year an artist is selected from the graduation show of one of the Danish Art Academies. PS44 is generously supported by Det Obelske Familie Fond, Vordingborg Kommune and the Danish Arts Council.
This exhibition is curated by Julia Rodrigues.