ALEXANDER TOVBORG – HVEM ER DIT SVÆRD
2018-08-20A large-scale painting hangs in a room, a sword mounted on the wall across from it. Navigating the space, you move past them into another room where a second equally large painting spans almost an entire wall. The atmosphere is both sparse and intense, echoing the gravity of the work at hand. The title, written in Tovborg’s mother tongue of Danish, reads “who is your sword”, and it is this open-ended question that guides us through the exhibition.
Who is your sword. Where is your sword.
Rooted in history, written and oral narratives, religion and myth, Tovborg’s practice explores the re-contextualisation and appropriation of archetypes and symbols. Investigating the (luid nature of much of our visual language, Tovborg positions himself as a safe-guard, arming himself in the (ight to take back representational imagery.
Figures such as Jeanne d’Arc–who teeters on the seemingly contradictory edge of both feminism and the more radical extreme of nationalism–are reclaimed. In so doing, she is brought back to her origins, allowing for a more open reading of her symbolism. Re(lecting this shift, the (irst painting depicts her being held by Tovborg himself. A representation of Mammon sits above one of his shoulders, a church above the other, echoing the balanced nature of both the work and also of the various tensions present. The second painting shows these roles reversed, as Tovborg (inds himself held by Jeanne d’Arc. Their embrace feels more forceful, with Jeanne d’Arc both pushing and protecting Tovborg, echoing a struggle that Tovborg feels within himself, as well as the struggle that exists between the varying ideologies that use Jeanne d’Arc to promote their own values.
Tom Morton
Opposite – Untitled, 2009
Exhibition runs through to October 20th, 2018
Galleri Bo Bjerggaard
Flæsketorvet 85 A
DK-1711 Copenhagen
Denmark
