FROM ONE TO MANY, MANY TO MANY, AND BETWEEN

ESTER FLECKNER

29 March 2025 / 17 May 2025

Avlskarl Gallery er stolte af at præsentere Ester Fleckners tredje soloudstilling i galleriet under titlen From one to many, many to many, and between two.

From one to many, many to many, and between two starter der, hvor kunstnerens seneste udstilling i galleriet sluttede i 2020. Her præsenterede Fleckner serien Woodbeds, brimming, en række mindre træsnit med udgangspunkt i geometrien, og i From one to many, many to many, and between two viser Fleckner syv nye værker, der tager udgangspunkt i disse, men genopført i et format, der tager serien helt nye steder hen.

Titlen From one to many, many to many, and between two peger på kunstnerens materielle og formelle undersøgelser af gentagelser, serialitet og afvigelser. Fleckner arbejder med træsnittet i et minimalistisk formsprog, hvor de samme figurer optræder i lineære forløb, der gentages igen og igen ned over papiret. Undervejs i håndens arbejde med snittet forandrer figurerne sig langsomt, og små forskydninger og interaktioner skaber en taktil variation i den eller ensartede grafik.

Woodbeds, brimming aflæses umiddelbart som en tekst med en læseretning fra venstre mod højre. De geometriske tegn – henholdsvis trekanter og femkanter – ligner i deres abstraktion en slags fremmedartet sprog, men et sprog, der er åbent, poetisk og umiddelbart uden entydige semantiske referencer. De peger snarere på rytmer og skift i det åbne felt, der ligger imellem tegnsystemet og kroppen, mellem den industrielle trykkeproces og det manuelle arbejde, og mellem den stramme geometri, der omgiver os i arkitektur og sprogliggørelse og kroppens modvilje imod at underskaste sig binære rammer.

I den nye version af Woodbeds, Brimming presser Ester Fleckner formatet til det yderste. Seriens enorme skala er den størst mulige, kunstnerens krop kan spænde over og som trykpressen kan rumme. Denne forskydning i skala betyder, at hvor serien tidligere refererede tydeligt til teksten, får de nye værker en anden og mere kropslig karakter. De minder om vævede ultramarinblå tæpper – eller en slags senge, som titlen synes at foreslå. 

Hvis Woodbeds, brimming peger tilbage imod kunstnerens tidligere udstilling, trækker udstillingens anden værkserie tråde til det arbejde, Ester Fleckner er optaget af netop nu. Til en serie sølvfarvede værker med titlen Bedfellows henter Fleckner inspiration i økokritikeren Timothy Mortons begreb om queer økologi, som referere til den tilstand af evig tilblivelse og fremkomst af nye former, der kendetegner naturen. 

I Bedfellows gentages og varieres en bladform hen over en serie, der et trykt på den samme plade. Mellem hvert tryk er flere former tilføjet, nogle i forlængelse af, andre henover eksisterende former, hvilket giver serien et præg af den fremdrift og forandrelighed, vi finder i naturen, hvor arter konstant er på vej til at blive til noget nyt i mødet med hinanden. Værkerne undersøger således den natur, der ikke er en statisk enhed af faste kategorier, men derimod en flydende, begærlig og kreativ forhandling i konstant flux. 

Ester Fleckner (f. 1983) er uddannet fra Det Kgl. Danske Kunstakademi i 2013. Fleckner har tidligere haft soloudstillinger på Kunstverein Freiburg, M100, Kunstplass Contemporary Art, Malmø Kunsthal, Galerie Barbara Wien og på Overgaden Institut for Samtidskunst. I 2024 udkom monografien Ester Fleckner: I navigate in collisions på Mousse Magazine and Publishing.

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Avlskarl Gallery is proud to present Ester Fleckner’s third solo exhibition in the gallery under the title From one to many, many to many, and between two.

From one to many, many to many, and between two takes off where the artist’s last exhibition in the gallery ended in 2020. Here, Fleckner presented the works Woodbeds, brimming, a series of smaller woodcuts based on geometry. In From one to many, many to many, and between two Fleckner exhibits seven new works based on these, but re-performed in a format that takes the series to completely new places.

The title From one to many, many to many, and between two points to the artist’s material and formal investigations of repetition, seriality and deviations. Fleckner works with the woodcut in a minimalist style, in which the same figures appear in linear sequences that are repeated again and again down the paper. During the hand’s work with the cut, the figures slowly change, and small shifts and interactions create a tactile variation in the otherwise uniform graphics.

Woodbeds, brimming is initially read as a text with a clear direction from left to right. The geometric signs – triangles and pentagons, respectively – resemble a kind of abstract, yet alien language, but a language which is open, poetic and without any immediate semantic references. Rather, they point to rhythms and shifts in the open field that lies between the sign system and the body, between the industrial printing process and manual labor, and between the tight geometry that surrounds us in architecture and linguistics and the body’s reluctance to submit to binary frames.

In the new version of Woodbeds, brimming, Ester Fleckner pushes the format to it’s limit. The enormous scale of the series is the largest possible which the artist’s body can span and that the printing press can accommodate. Where the series previously referred clearly to text, this shift in scale makes the new works take on a different and more corporeal character. They resemble woven ultramarine blue carpets – or a kind of beds, as the title seems to suggest.

If Woodbeds, brimming points back to the artist’s previous exhibition, the exhibition’s second series of works draws a line to Ester Fleckner’s current artistic interest. For a series of silver-colored works entitled Bedfellows, Fleckner draws inspiration from eco-critic Timothy Morton’s concept of queer ecology, which refers to the state of perpetual becoming and emergence of new forms that characterizes nature.

In Bedfellows, a leaf shape is repeated and varied across a series, printed on the same plate. Between each print, new forms are added, some in continuation of, while others across existing forms, which gives the series a touch of the momentum and changeability we find in nature, where species are constantly on their way to becoming something new in the encounter with each other. The works thus examine an idea of nature, which is not a static entity of fixed categories, but rather a fluid, desiring and creative negotiation in constant flux.

Ester Fleckner (b. 1983) graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2013. Fleckner has previously had solo exhibitions at Kunstverein Freiburg, M100, Kunstplass Contemporary Art, Malmö Kunsthal, Galerie Barbara Wien and at Overgaden Institut for Samtidskunst. In 2024, the monograph Ester Fleckner: I navigate in collisions was published by Mousse Magazine and Publishing.