SKØTTGARD – LUND
It is painful to admit that I will not save the world with ceramics,
but this is my voice.
Bente Skjøttgaard, Glowing in the Dark, Biennale DK 2021
The tableau or tableau vivant designates a type of theater, where actors are immobilized as a silent image for a brief instant on a set, usually inspired by History. In the science field, the word tableau (table) refers to a structured presentation of a specific topic in images, words or numbers. Tableaux by Bente Skjøttgaard brings to life both these definitions.
During the second half of the 19th century, German biologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) – fervent Darwinian and inventor of the concept of ecology – explored, among other things, the submarine world. In his book Art Forms in Nature (1904), tables (tableaux) inventory beings that live in the depths. These stunning and very detailed drawing boards have always fascinated Bente Skjøttgaard, who drew inspiration from them to create the works shown in Tableaux.
Bente Skjøttgaard’s works do not try to copy the natural world; they draw inspiration from it to create what is simultaneously concentrations of shapes, sensations and impressions.
But Tableaux remains nonetheless a feast – a celebration of different types of beauty, extravagance, imagination and a certain humor. By strolling between the tableaux of the exhibition, where in turns are visible, in little groups, natural vases caught in the current, high-headed carbon molecules and the wide-open mouths of ‘gourmet-greedy’ anemones, one understands that Bente Skjøttgaard shares her anxiety with us, but also delivers a tender yet attentive point of view.