Installation views of “A Projective Identification” at White Columns
Bjarne Melgaard, often referred to as “the most famous Norwegian artist since Munch,” has been busy of late redefining the notions of fame, identity and art world power as the curator of a deeply collaborative retrospective for his friend, countryman and new Brooklyn studio-mate Sverre Bjertnes. Open through April 20 at White Columns, “A Projective Identification” examines 15 years worth of Bjertnes’s paintings — from quieter nudes he first showed at Melgaard’s now defunct Norwegian Anarchist Faction gallery to a bright series of recent impasto-laden pieces one might call Melgaardian.
“I’ve never seen my paintings look more interesting than they do here,” Bjertnes says. “When I started out, I was viewed in a very conservative way but Bjarne saw a conceptual value in my work, so for me it’s not that unnatural to have my work in this sort of environment.”
For Melgaard, the show is also about bringing people closer through repetitions “of trying to express emotions that become colder and colder the more you try to express them.” This conceit manifests itself via trash piles of La Mer boxes, dozens of Robert Loughlin’s “brute” portraits (on various pieces of furniture, elephant tusks and a Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Identification Kit) and numerous portraits of Bjertnes’s actress girlfriend, Hanna-Maria Gronneberg, who appears in a video based on Ingrid Bergman’s “Scenes From a Marriage.” Various adapted texts printed on giant paper reams strewn about the floor — which are meant to be walked on, though most everyone at the opening steered clear of them — further examine the relationship between superficial luxury items and objects “with meaning.”
A similar dialogue happened at the Armory Show booth for Oslo’s Rod Bianco gallery, where the two built an explosive environment inspired by the New York gallery owner Mary Boone (represented with less-than-flattering mannequins, Chanel suits or even a drawing depicting “Mary Boone crying after Julian Schnabel left”). Melgaard explains, “She represents this world of no limits, and I guess that’s what attracted us to that theme.”
These excesses bleed into Melgaard’s speechless, scene-stealing turn in the duo’s absurdist artist talk sendup, playing on a loop in the back room of White Columns. Shot in a Tarantinoesque carousel style, the video features a Prada-suited Bjertnes interviewing the Luxembourg & Dayan director Alissa Bennett, who answers questions as Melgaard, while he sits mute in fur coats and Adidas track pants, stroking Chihuahuas.
“Alissa didn’t even know one single question we were going to ask, but it was like she was me in a way,” Melgaard says. “I’m sitting there looking like a mix between chronically bored and chronically depressed.” In other words, the two emotional states that are sure not to afflict anyone who sees this show.
“A Projective Identification” by Bjarne Melgaard is on view through April 20; whitecolumns.org.