International Affairs

It’s a bit like being in the National Museum’s antiquities collection and then suddenly discovering that the things in the display cases are made up of objects from very different ages and very different cultures. An acidic and mildly disturbing experience. Such is Frans Peter Valbjørn Knudsen’s art. There is something at once shamanistic and modern about it.

As we see it in the form of larger or smaller installations, it reminds us of the ritual vessels, chariots, woven textiles, sacrificial bowls and cultic creations that we find in the National Museum or other ethnographic collections. Live from a bygone era, when everything in life was part of a larger context, and where existence was all about satisfying the gods who ruled Everything. In the same breath, there is something ultra-modern about Frans Peter’s art. Neon-luminous textiles, prefabricated fabric, rubber and other industrially manufactured products are included on an equal footing with the cult-like objects in the installation as a whole.

An acidic and mildly disturbing experience

The result is that the brain is disturbed in its usual attempt to bring order to the scene. You are teased, taken out of your senses and try to get a handle on what the artist wants with it all. Humor undeniably helps here. Many of Frans Peter’s works have a title that both brings it all down to earth and gives it a twist. „Virgin birth“ looks like e.g. not what Catholics understand by the Immaculate Conception. In addition, there are a bit too many crossbars on the wooden sculpture. Unless these are to lead the thought to the son’s later crucifixion, in which case it is quite another serious matter.

„Bear trap“ doesn’t quite look like what we would expect from a hunting culture either. In any case, it does not seem very suitable for catching bears. In the same way, „No special occasion“, which in terms of shape looks like an ancient cultic object, has been given such a fiery red color in cheese wax!, that the mind is led to children’s cheese bought in the local supermarket.

With other artists, this clash of materials, title, meaning and association could lead to a rather convoluted, intellectual and difficult art. However, this is not the case with Frans Peter. His feeling for the quality and materiality of the materials, both in themselves and in interaction with each other, is so great that the works have a very physical dimension. You get an almost irresistible desire to touch them, feel them and pick them up.

At the same time, the sensuality and materiality of the works is exactly what makes us want to also intellectually explore the meaning of them. Not that Frans Peter operates with one sweeping meaning. He leaves this entirely up to us. But challenge our senses and pique our curiosity. This is done by Frans Peter Valbjørn Knudsen.

(Tom Jorgensen)