Fernisering: Emma Kohlmann: The Eternal Present

Undecipherable symbols, primeval art and innate curves float by. What is left: geometric forms illuminated by use of colour and emotions illuminated by strength left from the brush translated onto canvas. Some motifs come to the surface more often than others, just like a memorable or recurring dream.

These works feel like a perpetual interflow of today, tomorrow, and yesterday. It is not a chaos of space conception. But rather endless and unconfined space. Searching for the things that have not changed and discovering those that will provide new reasons to forget.

-Charlotte Kohlmann, 2024

In The Eternal Present Emma Kohlmann continues the exploration and development of a non-dual pictorial langue and universe. A holistic system of communication beyond words that recognises and embraces palaeolithic sentiments and symbols, the entangled existence of animals, plants and humans and the intersection of past, present and future. An intuitive language that engages a rich and sprawling historical foundation, from the walls of caves to contemporary creation. The human urge to share our experience in pictures. Visually informed by an eclectic variety of cultural and natural references encompassing a diverse range global mythology, folk art, botany, modern art history, psychology, philosophy and contemporary DIY aesthetics. Kohlmann’s vision is non-hierarchical and advocates species egalitarianism in which we interact with our surroundings with consideration and care. A strong sense of community radiates from her work, where anthropomorphic figures, plants, animals and mystical creatures coexist in spiritual tableaus.

The atmosphere of Kohlmann’s new body of work is ambiguous and wonderfully surreal. She draws inspiration from artists Francis Bacon and Hilma af Klint, the poetry of Kahlil Gibran and Ca Conrad and philosopher Walter Benjamin. Specifically, a passage from Benjamin’s Theses on the Philosophy of History on Paul Klee’s monoprint Angelus Novus resonate in this body of work. In the text Benjamin describes Klee’s "New Angel" as the angel of history and offers a melancholic view of historical process as a relentless storm. A sentiment that reflects the current times and 1940 when the text was composed. In Sigfried Gideon’s The Eternal Present, Volume I: The Beginnings of Art, he argues that the two keys to the meaning of prehistoric art are the symbol, portraying reality before reality exists, and the animal as humankind’s superior in the unified primordial world in which both human and animal were embedded, not only lends its title to Kohlmann’s exhibition, but also a way of seeing it. In the poetic and dynamic acrylic paintings, often beset in intricately pyrographed wooden frames, plants sprout anthropoid flowers and leaves, humans have butterfly or angel-like wings, couples and groups interact in movement or are depicted in contemplation.

The palette of the paintings in The Eternal Present is saturated and deep, primary and primal. A luminous red, that shares a bond with Matisse’s The Red Studio, appear in different incarnations in several of the new works creating a fellowship within and beyond the group. A red that can be traced through modern art history and back 20.000 years to the cave paintings in Altamira, Spain. Images and symbols reoccur: angel-like creatures, buds and pods, strange fauna, circular gestures, shells and various vessels. The motifs frequently have a cyclical nature, a pictorial mantra, that emphasises a feeling of The Eternal Present. Interconnected now and forever.

Emma Kohlmann, born in 1989, New York, USA, lives and works in Western Massachusetts, USA. Kohlmann holds a BA from Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, where she composed her own major in aesthetics, feminist theory and drawing. Kohlmann creates her own artist zines, prints and other ephemera such as books, stickers and wearable artworks, often in collaboration with her sister Charlotte on their joint publishing platform Mundus Press. She has exhibited extensively in the past years, including Silke Linder, New York, USA; V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark; Cooper Cole, Toronto, Canada; MOCA, Tucson, USA; Jack Hanley, New York, USA and Tennis Elbow/The Journal, New York, USA. The Eternal Present is Kohlmann’s fourth solo exhibition with the V1 Gallery/ Eighteen family. In conjunction with the exhibition Mundus Press will open a temporary store in V1 SALON (Flæsketorvet 69-71, Copenhagen, formerly the location of V1 Gallery). Two catalogues documenting the process of The Eternal Present will be available during the exhibition.

Kilde:
Eighteen