Losing our Heads
By Marie Nipper
August 2015

At Cathrine Raben Davidsen’s exhibition Losing our Heads at Munkeruphus we are invited into a universe of mythology, tales and history. The title is borrowed from the American author Regina Janes, whose book Losing our Heads is a collection of historical, literary and art-historical accounts of decapitation, that is beheading, literally ‘losing one’s head’. In art history in particular ‘losing your head’ is a recurring motif, and from antiquity until today it has been used as a powerful image of the splitting of body from mind.

As is often the case with Cathrine Raben Davidsen, a large body of research work underlies the exhibition. With a point of departure in ancient myths, historical narratives and more recent literature, Losing our Heads is a narrative of loss.  But it is not the physical loss of the head that interests Cathrine Raben Davidsen. Instead her title functions as a metaphor for the loss of control one can experience when the rational ego is suppressed and the emotions take over. It is a mental separation that offers the potential for development – both personal and artistic. She explains: “Our face is what makes us recognizable in the social world. And our brain tells us who we are. Our speaking mouth is the link between the two, and if we lose our heads, we lose everything. But at the same time there is a loss of control that can transform and develop our way of thinking at an internal level.”

For the exhibition Losing our Heads Cathrine Raben Davidsen has created a series of new ceramic works. Inspired by both Japanese raku ceramics and Mexican terracotta work, she has concentrated on formal simplicity and materiality. In her drawings too Cathrine Raben Davidsen has chosen to work in a new way. She has loosened up her composition and satu­rated the picture surface by building the works up with several layers of ink, charcoal, oil, pastel, pigment and acrylic. This can be seen for example in The Red Ribbon, a series of drawings created with a starting point in the short story about the girl who loses her head after the ribbon she always wears around her neck is loosened. The intimate, atmospheric portraits also make reference to the so-called Bals des victimes, a succession of legendary festivities held in the years after the French Revolution, in which people in ingenious costumes with red ribbons around their necks partied in honour of the victims of the guillotine.

In both stories the ribbon functions as a symbol of what keeps body and head together. For Cathrine Raben Davidsen too there exists a ‘ribbon’, a characteristic line that weaves the motifs together and runs as a common thread through her artistic production.

 

By Marie Nipper, Senior Curator at TATE Liverpool

 

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På Cathrine Raben Davidsens udstilling Losing our Heads på Munkeruphus inviteres vi indenfor i et univers af mytologi, fortælling og historie. Titlen er lånt fra den amerikanske forfatter Regina Jones, hvis bog Losing our Heads udgør en samling af historiske, literære og kunsthistoriske beretninger om dekapitation, dvs. dét at tabe eller miste hovedet. Særligt i kunsthistorien optræder ’hovedtabet’ som et tilbagevendende motiv, og er fra antikken til i dag blevet brugt som et kraftfuldt billede på splittelsen af krop og sind.

Som det ofte er tilfældet hos Cathrine Raben Davidsen, ligger der et stort researcharbejde til grund for udstillingen. Med afsæt i antikke myter, historiske fortællinger og nyere litteratur, udgør Losing our Heads en fortælling om tab. Men det er ikke det fysiske hovedtab, der interesserer Cathrine Raben Davidsen. I stedet fungerer titlen som en metafor for det kontroltab, man kan opleve, når det rationelle ’jeg’ fortrænges og følelserne tager styringen. Det er en mental løsrivelse, der giver mulighed for en udvikling – både personligt og kunstnerisk. Selv forklarer hun, at ”vores ansigt er det, der gør os genkendelige i den sociale verden. Og vores hjerner er det, der fortæller os, hvem vi er. Vores talende mund er bindeleddet mellem de to og taber vi vores hoveder, mister vi alt. Men samtidig er der tale om et kontroltab, som kan forvandle og videreudvikle vores tankesæt på et indre plan”.

Til udstillingen Losing our Heads har Cathrine Raben Davidsen skabt en serie nye, keramiske værker. Inspireret af både japansk raku-keramik og mexicansk terrakotta-arbejde, har hun koncentreret sig om formmæssig enkelthed og stoflighed i materialet. Også i sine tegninger har Cathrine Raben Davidsen valgt at arbejde på en ny måde. Hun har løsnet op for sin komposition og mættet billedfladen ved at bygge værkerne op af flere lag blæk, kul, olie, pastel, pigment og akryl. Det ses bl.a. i The Red Ribbon (1-15), en serie af tegninger skabt med udgangspunkt i novellen om pigen der mister hovedet, efter at det bånd hun altid bærer om sin hals, bliver løsnet. De intime og stemningsfyldte portrætter bærer også reference til de såkaldte Bals des victimes, en række myteomspundne fester afholdt i årene efter den Franske Revolution, hvor man i kunstfærdige kostumer og med røde bånd om halsen, festede til ære for guillotinens ofre.

I begge fortællinger optræder båndet som et symbol på dét, der holder krop og hoved sammen. Også hos Cathrine Raben Davidsen eksisterer der et bånd, en karakteristisk streg, der væver motiverne sammen og løber som en rød tråd gennem hendes værkproduktion.