In collaboration with the Latvian Center for Contemporary Art (LCCA) Collega presents Armours. Following LCCA’s approach to exhibition making, Armours is an intergenerational meeting between Rikke Diemer (b. 1943) and Anna Malicka (b. 1995), two artists addressing feminist questions through their multifaceted practices. Armours examines the relationship between the artist, the housewife, the organiser, the bimbo and the warrior.
At the centre of the exhibition is Rikke Diemer’s piece “Battle Dress” from 1999. This sculptural dress consists of neon lighting and a photo print depicting the Greek goddess Athena in front of the Harrods shopping mall in London. Dresses are a recurring motif in Diemer's work, as well as the Greek goddess, already present in her 1981 solo exhibition Athena, at Glyptoteket. That show thematised Athena as an important character in the history of gender who mixes feminine and masculine energies. Diemer then began working with dress patterns, exhibiting them in her installations and photographic prints. To her dresses are like armours. Apart from her photographic and sculptural practice, Diemer’s contribution as an organiser has been important to the Danish art scene. She currently sits on the board of Astrid Noacks Atelier, was the initiator of a kindergarten at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1970 as well as a member of Kanonklubben (1968–1970). Kanonklubben was an artist group without professors and some of its female members were initiators of the Danish women's rights organisation, the Red Stocking Movement.
One of the group’s happenings Damebilleder (Lady Images) in 1970 was a live tableau portraying female roles in modern society: the slut, the beauty, the dishwasher, among others. Apart from Diemer, the group consisted of Kirsten Justesen, Jytte Rex, Kirsten Dufour, Jytte Keller, Gitte
Skjold Jensen, Marie Bille and Lene Adler Petersen and others.
Skjold Jensen, Marie Bille and Lene Adler Petersen and others.
Riga-based artist Anna Malicka shows new and existing psychedelic drawings exploring themes such as handicrafts, youth cultures and everyday aesthetics. Inspired by Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, Malicka creates imaginary spaces that are often destabilising and intense. Her
drawing Hells Bells (2021), for example, departs from gardening manuals presenting a flower – Datura stramonium, commonly known as hell’s bell – both a pristine and joyful garden flower but also a deadly, hallucinogenic plant. The border of the paper is stitched with lace that Malicka was given by her friend’s grandmother, creating a frame around the drawing while celebrating handicrafts traditionally associated with female pursuits. Malicka presents a new series of abstracted fashion drawings of a psychedelic boot inspired by a popular Latvian song, “Vecais Zābaciņš” (“Old Boot”). Sung by all Latvian schoolchildren, the song is about growing up and the painful transition from childhood through the metaphor of an old boot that has become too small to fit. Malicka works with feminist symbols and as an organiser in her practice, among other things
through the female DJ and food collective PR0_Bi$TR0. By mixing sound, textiles, drawing and embroidery, she manifests different roles and identities from her life as an “unreal estate agent, virtual Latvian and urban gatherer.”
drawing Hells Bells (2021), for example, departs from gardening manuals presenting a flower – Datura stramonium, commonly known as hell’s bell – both a pristine and joyful garden flower but also a deadly, hallucinogenic plant. The border of the paper is stitched with lace that Malicka was given by her friend’s grandmother, creating a frame around the drawing while celebrating handicrafts traditionally associated with female pursuits. Malicka presents a new series of abstracted fashion drawings of a psychedelic boot inspired by a popular Latvian song, “Vecais Zābaciņš” (“Old Boot”). Sung by all Latvian schoolchildren, the song is about growing up and the painful transition from childhood through the metaphor of an old boot that has become too small to fit. Malicka works with feminist symbols and as an organiser in her practice, among other things
through the female DJ and food collective PR0_Bi$TR0. By mixing sound, textiles, drawing and embroidery, she manifests different roles and identities from her life as an “unreal estate agent, virtual Latvian and urban gatherer.”
Armours is curated by Lotte Løvholm from Collega and Inga Lāce from the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art. As part of Armours, Løvholm and Lāce present a film programme at Kunsthal Charlottenborg from 17 January–18 February with works by Saodat Ismailova and Sophio Medoidze.