Satirical Drag Horror Show (Exhibition review on "Art Me" (Michael Kvium) @Tang Contemporary Art
8 November 2018 | Ashley
What drew me to this solo exhibition of Danish artist Michael Kvium, namely Art Me, at Tang Contemporary Art was the grotesque characters that he sculpted and painted.
Tang Contemporary Art, like most galleries, has their walls painted white, unlike Empty Gallery, which has everything in black. It was quite a big space I would say which housed, during the time of the exhibition, a circus of peculiar characters. What captured my attention at first gaze was inevitably the human-size sculpture called Contemporary Fools: Art, 2017. It is a middle-aged man wearing a chic red cap emerging above a yellow metal can of black liquid, and with his arms stretched wide to his sides with skeleton hands. This was already a crooked character that would fascinate anybody. The use of silicon for his body and face, as well as the detail of curly brown hair on his chest and underarm were so effective in bringing to life the texture of human skin and hair. I spent a lot of time (not in a creepy way) staring at the back of his neck, absorbed by the possible humanness of the sculpture.
What was more shocking, was definitely the sculpture behind him. It was Contemporary Fools: Future, 2017, where a baby, dipped in the same black liquid contained in the same yellow tin as the first piece I mentioned, was hung upside down from the ceiling by what seemed to be an umbilical cord. The brutality of this act would startle anyone coming close to it. I dared myself to look closely at the baby's gnarly black face as I did with the first piece, but it was impossible to stay focused when the sight was tainted with horror and menace. For Kvium's sculptures, what makes them daunting and disturbing is their human-size. As a viewer, I found it easy, almost too easy, to identify with the sculptures of possibly suffering characters. It was a discomfort that would make you feel uneasy but at the same time, keep your interest triggered.
As for his paintings, tidily spread on the walls of the gallery surrounding these horrid sculptures, they were as equally peculiar, and I enjoyed them just as much. A technical peculiarity was that in most of his displayed paintings, he would attach one little canvas right below the huge canvas on which he painted the character, and draw on it maybe an extended hand or body that always seemed to be dripping or melting. This echoes with the black liquid which I saw with the sculptures where the characters are always dipped into something unpleasant and emerging above it again. This little canvas is comparable to the yellow tins in both sculptures. They hide these characters' mysteries and dishonesty, which make us wonder what monstrous stories they have to tell.
Overall, I enjoyed this exhibition very much. Despite the grotesque beauty of these characters which was absolutely captivating, I was also largely fascinated by the ambiguous gender of them. They also peculiarly seemed to be one person, and with that person being the artist himself. All of these came together as a theatrical show of a combination of drag, satire and horror, which in my opinion, was a daring but successful one.
What drew me to this solo exhibition of Danish artist Michael Kvium, namely Art Me, at Tang Contemporary Art was the grotesque characters that he sculpted and painted.
 |
| Michael Kvium, Contemporary Fools: Art, 2017 @Tang Contemporary Art |
Tang Contemporary Art, like most galleries, has their walls painted white, unlike Empty Gallery, which has everything in black. It was quite a big space I would say which housed, during the time of the exhibition, a circus of peculiar characters. What captured my attention at first gaze was inevitably the human-size sculpture called Contemporary Fools: Art, 2017. It is a middle-aged man wearing a chic red cap emerging above a yellow metal can of black liquid, and with his arms stretched wide to his sides with skeleton hands. This was already a crooked character that would fascinate anybody. The use of silicon for his body and face, as well as the detail of curly brown hair on his chest and underarm were so effective in bringing to life the texture of human skin and hair. I spent a lot of time (not in a creepy way) staring at the back of his neck, absorbed by the possible humanness of the sculpture.
 |
| Michael Kvium, Contemporary Fools: Art, 2017 @Tang Contemporary Art |
What was more shocking, was definitely the sculpture behind him. It was Contemporary Fools: Future, 2017, where a baby, dipped in the same black liquid contained in the same yellow tin as the first piece I mentioned, was hung upside down from the ceiling by what seemed to be an umbilical cord. The brutality of this act would startle anyone coming close to it. I dared myself to look closely at the baby's gnarly black face as I did with the first piece, but it was impossible to stay focused when the sight was tainted with horror and menace. For Kvium's sculptures, what makes them daunting and disturbing is their human-size. As a viewer, I found it easy, almost too easy, to identify with the sculptures of possibly suffering characters. It was a discomfort that would make you feel uneasy but at the same time, keep your interest triggered.
 |
| Michael Kvium, Contemporary Fools: Future, 2017 @Tang Contemporary Art |
As for his paintings, tidily spread on the walls of the gallery surrounding these horrid sculptures, they were as equally peculiar, and I enjoyed them just as much. A technical peculiarity was that in most of his displayed paintings, he would attach one little canvas right below the huge canvas on which he painted the character, and draw on it maybe an extended hand or body that always seemed to be dripping or melting. This echoes with the black liquid which I saw with the sculptures where the characters are always dipped into something unpleasant and emerging above it again. This little canvas is comparable to the yellow tins in both sculptures. They hide these characters' mysteries and dishonesty, which make us wonder what monstrous stories they have to tell.
 |
| Michael Kvium, Pink Clown, 2018 @Tang Contemporary Art |
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| Michael Kvium, Culture Freak, 2017 @Tang Contemporary Art |
Overall, I enjoyed this exhibition very much. Despite the grotesque beauty of these characters which was absolutely captivating, I was also largely fascinated by the ambiguous gender of them. They also peculiarly seemed to be one person, and with that person being the artist himself. All of these came together as a theatrical show of a combination of drag, satire and horror, which in my opinion, was a daring but successful one.
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