Trine Søndergaard – STILL

The exhibition presents two series of photographs where the eye is confronted with the nostalgia of a past time. Trine Søndergaard presents us with images imbued with silence, which do not give answers but incite the spectator to wonder about what he sees. The title Still has no literal equivalent in French, it combines the notions of calm and silence.Interior (2008-2012)Søndergaard patiently assembled the images in this series over a long period, repeatedly visiting the rooms of uninhabited Danish manors in winter. When she first arrived, the buildings had been abandoned for over half a century. They were like an empty shell of the past, with nothing to show that the rooms had ever been lived in. These abandoned spaces provided an ideal locus for her unique precision and sensibility and ongoing exploration of the photographic image.The images in Interior clearly refer to the nineteenth-century Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi's paintings of rooms, with their harmonious palette of greys and fine perception and rendering of light.Guldnakke (2012-2013)Gold is a universal symbol of wealth, the sublime or the divine, frequently kindling desire in the beholder. These bonnets date from the mid-nineteenth century and were popular among the wives of wealthy Danish farmers. Gilded textiles had previously been the preserve of royalty, the nobility and the church, so they were a status symbol. The highly skilled needlewomen who specialized in making them are early examples of self-employed women and were often able to support their families from their earnings. Søndergaard has previously explored both the link between this kind of female history and a specific garment and the viewer's capacity to read historical signs.Trine Søndergaard (b. 1972) is a Danish photography-based visual artist. She lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. Søndergaard’s precise, sensitive work explores the medium of photography, its boundaries and what constitutes an image. Layered with meaning and quiet emotion, her works have been acclaimed for the way they intensify our visual perception of reality. She has been awarded the Albert Renger-Patzsch Prize and has received numerous grants and fellowships, including a three-year working grant from the Danish Arts Foundation.Opening on Tuesday March 19th at 7pmArtist talk at 6.30 pmTuesday to Friday: 1 to 7 pmSaturday, Sunday and holidays: 1 to 6 pmClosed on MondaysFree entry